The Bobcats are breaking out of Athens for the first time this season and are trying to gain the first breakthrough in their 2012-2013 campaign by traveling to Fairfax, Va, to participate in the Patriot Invitational.
Despite several individual standout performances, especially by the diving team, the season is not going as well as many would have hoped it would.
The Bobcats are working through injuries are 0-2 for the first time since 2008 after falling to Eastern Michigan and Ohio State. The results haven’t been the most positive for Ohio as it as been outscored by 106 points in both meets
Ohio coach Greg Werner does not see a need to worry about these statistics though. After saying Saturday that he would rather start 0-2 and peak at the championships than be 2-0 and not peak at the championships, he added that he does not see dual meets as crucial.
“Those meets just tell us where we are at in the season right now,” Werner said. “We don’t have to win every competition like other teams here on campus do. If we lose it is not the end of the world. We already have a spot in the Mid-American Conference championships.”
After two weeks of hard training Werner sees his team as exactly at the point at which it needs to be.
“We prepare for the championships. This has always been our philosophy,” Werner said.
Still, the swimmers and divers were disappointed after the tough 112-182 loss to Ohio State this past weekend. The Bobcats were able to defeat Ohio State five years ago and according to Werner they wanted to get back to the same level again.
By traveling to Fairfax to compete in the Patriot Invitational for the first time in 10 years, the Bobcats are trying to shift the momentum.
The three-day competition features 10 teams. With the exception of Ohio, all originate from the East Coast. The line-up for the invitational does not look as strong as the competition the Bobcats will face throughout the rest of the season.
There are only three teams with a positive record entering the invitational, while the rest already lost at least two dual meets, with the University of North Carolina-Wilmington already having lost 10 dual meets. None of these teams have competed against teams that were on the level of Ohio’s opponents this season. The Bobcats will go into the meet as the heavy favorite to win the invitational overall.
After starting the season 0-2, a team win at the invitational might be what the Bobcats need to get back on the winning track for upcoming dual meets. But Werner sees even more use to it.
“We compete in those invitationals because they have preliminary and final races”, Werner said. “They are just like the MAC championships. It will prepare us for the challenges that we will face later.”
Moreover Werner said the team will need to figure out how to recover and how to stay hydrated during a long three-day competition.
“This can have a huge impact on our experience,” Werner said, adding that the coaches will benefit from this weekend as well. “We can watch the swimmers more individually since there are a lot of different heats and a lot of chances to only put one simmer into one race,” Werner said.
While the competition is not the strongest, the Bobcats will definitely profit from their three-day trip to Virginia. Whether it will just add to the experience of the swimmers or also give them a mental recovery with a team win after starting the season 0-2, will be determined starting Thursday.
am794811@ohiou.edu
