Competing in its first meet of the season, Ohio defeated Ball State 162-138 and gained momentum, before returning to Athens for a pair of meets the next two weeks.
The win Saturday did not come easily for the Bobcats, though.
Barring multiple athlete’s injuries and the absence of coach Greg Werner for personal reasons, the women staved off early season adversity.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these girls,” assistant coach Derick Roe said. “These girls really stepped up today and did great. We were down in numbers, and they all had to race a lot, and so I couldn’t be more proud.”
Being the first meet of the season, Ohio was forced to work out multiple kinks, including adjusting to Ball State’s shallow waters in the Lewellen Aquatic Center.
“The pool wasn’t the ideal situation,” senior Rachel Stearns said. “It was very shallow water to dive into. It was just something you have to adjust to and being their home, it gave them the advantage early on.”
The Bobcats’ took first place in 10 of the 16 events, with Stearns placing in first in three events, including the 100-yard backstroke a time of 57.44 seconds, the 200-yard backstroke at 2:04.40, as well as a time of 2:09.49 for the 200-individual medley.
“I’m very happy with my performance,” Stearns said. “I think overall we did great. We’re not a hundred percent right now, and we have a lot of people who are injured, but once we have more people, it will even out and we all won’t have to swim as much.”
The dive team dominated Ball State, as juniors Haleigh Bartlett, Morgan Srail and senior Kristin Capcik placed first, second and third, respectively, in the one-meter dive and three-meter dive.
Senior Laurin Williams and sophomore Bianca Hauzer placed first and second in each the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle, as the duo finished just 0.2 seconds apart in the 1000 and three seconds apart in the 500-yard event.
“Those were two good events,” Williams said. “We weren’t trying to put all of our effort into one event because we had to race in more later.”
On the 16th and final event of the meet, Ohio’s “A” group placed first in the 400-yard relay with sophomore Haley Clark, freshman Josie Barker, junior Tori Bagan and sophomore Casey Papp rounding out the win for the Bobcats.
“(The win) will definitely give us more confidence,” Williams said. “We want to prove (the MAC) wrong and show that we’re a much better team than what we were projected as.”
lr514812@ohiou.edu
@Lukeoroark
