Freshman Haley Clark perfectly described Ohio’s meet against Xavier.
“It was definitely a kind of practice meet,” she said.
Ohio decided not to let its last three swimming events count towards the overall score and still won 137.5-113.5 against Xavier Friday night.
The Bobcats won 12 of 16 events en route to their first victory in a home meet this season, after losing the first two in October and November.
Friay's competition wasn't tradition, as Xavier presented a different style.
“Their coach asked if we could do a sprint-type of meet,” said Ohio coach Greg Werner. “We never get to do that, we have never done this lineup and this order of events. We said yes to make it fun, to make it different.”
Despite the contrasting style, Xavier couldn’t take advantage of it, winning only four events.
“It feels great (to win), of course,” Werner said. “But I am more focused on how they performed. We had a lot of season best performances. I am really, really excited.”
In the absence of her sprinting partner Lauren Funk, due to personal reasons, senior Katey Brooks won the 100-yard freestyle in a season best time of 51.29 seconds. Long distance swimmer Bianca Hauzer also showed her potential in shorter distances, as she won the 400-yard freestyle, by holding off Xavier’s Mackenna Rife on the last few strokes.
“I always try to swim pick up the pace towards the end of my races,” Hauzer said. “A lot of distance swimmers don’t do that.”
Junior Rachel Stearns won the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle event, which her first individual wins after she didn’t compete in the month of December and returned to competition this past weekend against West Virginia. Still, Stearns says there is still room to improve.
“I definitely have higher expectations for myself in the next couple of weeks than I had in West Virginia,” Stearns said. “I will be getting a lot better.”
While Xavier might not have been the toughest competition the Bobcats have faced this season, the divers faced no competition at all Friday night Xavier doesn’t have a diving team this season, which made the divers compete against themselves.
“It is basically like practice when you have a meet like this,” sophomore Morgan Srail said. “It was good to kind of get a meet situation because you have to focus and also so we can get ready for tomorrow.”
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