With the first of three days completed at the H2Okie Invitaional, Ohio showed signs of improvement from its previous meets starting in preliminaries, which took place at 10 a.m., to the finals, which took place at 6 p.m., on Thursday in Christiansburg, Virginia.
Ohio is competing against swimmers from around the country, including Virginia Tech, Villanova, Alabama and South Carolina, among others.
“It’s a lot of fun [competing against these teams],” coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh said. “It takes a little pressure off because they are teams that have been ranked at the NCAA.”
Preliminaries
In the 500 yard freestyle redshirt junior Bianca Hauzer placed 12th out of 52 swimmers to qualify for the finals, while sophomore Laura Dawson finished 15th in the 200-yard individual medley to also qualify for the finals.
In the one-meter diving competition, freshman Karissa Conner was again the lone diver for Ohio and placed 9th of 14.
Finals
Ohio’s 200-yard relay team of freshmen Liz Murphy and Carrie Dukes, sophomore Josie Barker and Hauzer placed 13th and finished with a time of 1:37.15 in group B.
The Bobcats possibly could have finished 8th, which would’ve given them an extra 22 points overall, but they were penalized for an early start by one of the swimmers.
Coach Komisarz-Baugh wishes it wouldn’t have happened but know that they will learn from it.
In the 200 yard IM, Dawson placed 10th, second on group B, with a time of 2:03.89.
Junior Haley Clark and Addy Ferguson, along with senior Tori Bagan placed 19th, 20th and 24th, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle in group C.
To end the events for day one for Ohio, the 400-yard relay team of Clark, Ferguson, Dawson and Bagan placed fourth competing in group A.
“That was a great swim for us,” Komisarz-Baugh said.
The 400-yard relay team surpassed some Atlantic Coast Conference and a few Southeastern Conference teams to claim fourth. Some of Ohio’s swimmers recorded their best times since high school, which Komisarz-Baugh said is a motivation boost going into the rest of the meet.
“Only having coached these girls for a few months, it is good to see that their hard work is paying off,” she said.
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