American author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” The Bobcats matched the quote perfectly by clinching the Patriot Invitational at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., after losing the first two dual meets this season.
Not only did the team win the three-day invitational but rather they dominated it, winning eight out of 20 events, never relinquishing the lead en route to scoring 785.5 points, 136.5 ahead of second-place Richmond.
The Bobcats didn’t leave any doubt about wanting to get back onto the winning track. In the first final of the invitational, Ohio’s 200-yard freestyle relay of Tori Bagan, Haley Clark, Lauren Funk and Katey Brooks set the pace for the Bobcats as they won the event in a season-best time of 1:35.27.
From that point on, the Bobcats won four of the six events during the first day and never placed below second in any event.
“I am ecstatic,” Ohio coach Greg Werner said after the first day of competition. “We were phenomenal tonight.”
The diving team contributed to the first day in a big way. The Bobcats placed first through sixth in the 3-meter diving competition, which was won by sophomore Morgan Srail.
“The divers were impressive, they couldn’t finish any higher,” Werner said. “I don’t know where we would be at right now without our divers.”
The Bobcats’ lead seemed to be comfortable as they were ahead by 148 points. But Werner warned that there were still two days left in the competition.
“We saw it last year at the Mid-American Conference championships how fast a lead can evaporate after the first day,” Werner said.
Werner said the second day is always the most difficult for the team, considering all of Ohio’s athletes who were in the pool Thursday were in the lineup again for Friday’s events. Ohio struggled through the second day, winning three out of eight events and accumulating 186.5 points.
Ohio wasn’t able to place any swimmer in the 200-yard freestyle or the 100-yard breaststroke final, the heat in which most points can be achieved.
“Swimming in back-to-back days was difficult,” Werner said after the second day. “The team is tired.”
After all, Werner was still concerned about the third day as the lead shrank to 109.5 points.
“Hopefully we don’t show these signs of tiredness tomorrow,” he said.
The swimmers didn’t. Junior Laurin Willams won every distance event in the invitational, including the 1,650-yard freestyle on the third day.
“The results were amazing,” Werner said. “But we are far from perfect; we keep
moving forward.”
am794811@ohiou.edu
