Ohio will go to the Mid-American Championships in Oxford, Ohio from Feb. 22-25 looking to end its streak of three consecutive sixth-place finishes, as well as win for the first time since 2011.
Three straight sixth-place finishes means no one on the teams have experienced anything other than a sixth place result at MAC Championships.
Ohio is gaining confidence, however, with a dominating January that saw major improvements for everyone on the team, even though they were not cutting back on training.
As it has been all season long in dual meets, Ohio has its best chance to win and place in the top-five in the freestyle events.
Corbin Van Lanen will go into the championships having won the 50-yard freestyle in every dual meet of the season and six-out-of-seven 100-yard freestyles. Despite winning all the freestyle events, Van Lanen has her best chance in the 100-yard butterfly, where she is ranked third in the MAC.
Olivia Dillon is the best shot for Ohio in the diving events and is looking to make it past NCAA Zones C, which she made last year.
January was a big month for the diving team as they picked up their first event win of the season by Dillon. Not only was Dillon improving, but the whole team made vast improvements since the beginning of the season.
The meet will start on Wednesday and include the 200m medley and 800m freestyle relays. The three days after will be when most events take place.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning will consist of the preliminary heats for all events with the finals of those events taking place in the evening.
“I think they adapt a lot better to the four-day format,” Coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh said. “You can just go all out and you have a whole day to recover from that and get ready for the next day or at least the evening session.”
ESPN 3 will be broadcasting Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the championships.
The only question that remains to be answered, is whether Ohio will break their streak of finishing in sixth-place.
