Only the Mid-American Conference Championships are left on Ohio’s calendar, and they will give the Bobcats an opportunity to show their growth.
After an underwhelming fall performance, the Bobcats bounced back in January, winning all but four events in three dual meets.
The Bobcats are now transitioning into preparation for the MAC Championships on Feb. 22-25 in Oxford, Ohio, where Miami is hosting the competition.
The preparation is different, as it's a four-day meet, so each person will likely only have one or two events each day with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening.
To prepare, the team will swim a lower number of yards, focusing on every detail, coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh said.
Having more time off in between events will benefit the times for swimmers on all teams. During the dual meet season, there are sometimes only five minutes between events, providing little time for rest. The times are usually slower than at multi-day meets.
The four divers have not competed against other schools since Jan.15 at the Buffalo Invite, but have shown great improvements this month in their limited competitions.
Confidence gained in January from winning all the events has been beneficial to the Bobcats, who struggled through the fall.
Ohio is a young team with 20 of the 28 members being underclassmen. That should not be a big problem, as three of the underclassmen have experience at the Olympic trials, and the Louisville Invitational in the fall was good experience for all of them.
Sixth place is the only finish at MAC Championships that anyone on the team knows. They have placed there for the past three years.
Ohio has been showing improvements in all events this year. That is due to the time off in December in which the team focused on training without distractions.
The ability of the team to make large improvements after having a few weeks to practice without meets will be beneficial as the MAC Championships is the only meet left.
The Bobcats took part in the Marshall Invite on Feb. 3-4. Times were tracked, though points were not tallied. Many Bobcats had their personal bests of the season at that meet, and if they can add to the improvements made, Ohio could do well at the MAC Championships.
The cards are stacked in Ohio’s favor to improve its performance from the past three years. All they need to do is play the cards.
