After losing to Toledo by only four points, the Bobcats lost another close one in the pool to West Virginia
On the final leg of its eighth-consecutive road meet, Ohio headed to Morgantown, West Virginia, for its final road meet before the Mid-American Conference Championships.
Fresh off a heartbreaking loss against Toledo last weekend, when the Bobcats lost by only four points, Ohio fell just short again and lost to West Virginia 155-143.
Ohio Athletics didn’t make coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh or the Bobcats available to The Post for comment following the meet.
The signature event of the Bobcats was the medley relay, in which Ohio finished in first place to kick off the meet. The quartet of junior Addison Ferguson, senior Tori Bagan, sophomore Laura Dawson and freshman Liz Murphy finished the event with a time of 1:44.83.
Ohio (2-6) found itself on the top of the podium after four of the first five events. Dawson finished first in the 200-yard freestyle, Ferguson followed with a win in the 100-yard backstroke and Bagan secured the top spot in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Ferguson also won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.50, which beat the West Virginia pool record from 2011. Ohio took the final event of the evening and swept the relay events when Bagan, Haley Clark, Katie Lemen and Murphy finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:36.49.
In diving, freshman Karissa Conner was again the sole Bobcat in the competition and placed third out of four in the one-meter dive with a score of 234.21. She then finished fourth in the three-meter dive.
During the final five events, the Bobcats had two second-place finishes, falling mere seconds short of securing points necessary to win late in the meet. Bagan finished .17 seconds from first in the 200-yard backstroke and was followed by redshirt junior Bianca Hauzer, who finished .89 seconds behind in the 500-yard freestyle.
The team has shown fight in the second half of meets like Saturday, which is another example of how Ohio has fought through challenges of another season spent mostly on the road.
Ohio will be able to finish its season next weekend against Miami in Athens, where it has not had a meet since the season opener against Ohio State in October.
@PaulHolden33
ph553412@ohio.edu
