On the third day of competition, Ohio was able to string together a pair of first-place finishes out of the six events on the day. As the action continued, Akron widened its lead while Miami and Ohio tried to overtake one another as well as Akron. Nonetheless, Ohio saw a lot of strong performances in the six events on Day 3 as its quest for a Mid-American Conference title continues.
100-yard Butterfly:
For the second straight day, Abigail Daniels of Akron was able to set a pool record. This time, she did so in the 100-yard Butterfly. Her time of 51.60 broke a personal record that she set last year at the MAC Championships, as well as the pool mark. Aside from Daniels, Akron did very well as it also had the second-place finisher, Rachel Sabotin, and the sixth-place finisher, Aislinn Holder. In third place, Buffalo’s Clarice Fisher narrowly beat out Ohio’s Gabrielle Brust for the bronze.
400-yard Individual Medley:
Yet again, Miami’s Nicole Maier blew past the competition to claim a first-place finish. In the 400-yard Individual Medley, her time of 4:09.38 was not good enough to beat her own MAC Championships record from 2022, but it did place her a full 5 1/2 seconds ahead of the field and clinch a new pool record. The next closest swimmer to Maier was Akron’s Astrid Halvorsen — who finished at 4:14.91 — did not fare poorly, but was outshined considerably by Maier’s excellence.
Gabrielle McKee finished third with her time of 4:17.76. Akron got another finalist into the top half of the field as Giovanna Cappabianca came in fourth.
In the consolation finals, however, Ohio secured the 8th, 9th and 10th place finishes. Morgan Croaning, Emily Ellsworth and Morgan Brown all secured much-needed points for Ohio as it hoped to chase down Akron and Miami.
200-yard Freestyle:
Not only had Ohio been kept off the top of the podium to this point, but Ohio had not seen an individual win the 200-yard Freestyle since 2005. Zita Szoke was able to break both of those trends. She narrowly edged out reigning MAC Champion Weronika Gorecka by 0.21 seconds to claim the first individual title for Ohio of the MAC Championships. Szoke’s performance was huge as Ohio not only got the best of its two main competitors, Akron and Miami, but it also showcased the dominance of the freshman Szoke.
Behind Gorecka was Miami’s Greta Kolbeck with Ball State’s Payton Kelly rounding out the top-four finishers. Ohio had another finalist as McKenzie Grau finished in 6th place to give Ohio even more points in the event.
100-yard Breaststroke:
Ohio was not done getting first-place finishes. As predicted by Ohio Coach Mason Norman the night prior, these two events would be the ones that could give Ohio some points. Casi Dibetta made sure that she made her coach’s prophecy true, snagging first place over Sara Lahrach Sanchez of Miami as well as a pair of Akron finalists. Dibetta’s time of 1:00.32 was over a second faster than the closest competition and put Ohio even closer to overtaking Miami at this point.
Outside of just Dibetta, Ohio had another pair of finalists in the event as Julia Strine and Edie Sawyer finished 6th and 7th, respectively. The overall strong showing from Ohio made this its most successful event of the night as well as the weekend to this point.
100-yard Backstroke:
Ohio was not able to get any finalists in the 100-yard Backstroke. Only Riley Bunstine was able to make it to the Consolation Finals, finishing last in that heat and 16th overall. Akron came out on top once again as three of the top five finishers represented it. Maddy Gatrall was able to break the pool record with her time of 52.70 but came just shy of her MAC Championships record from last year. Her teammate, Gorecka finished in third while fellow Akron swimmer, Rebecca Reid was the fifth-place finisher.
3-Meter Diving Consolation Final:
Although she was unable to qualify for the Championship heat, Ohio freshman Astrid Pichardo was able to impress in the 3-Meter Diving Consolation Final. Her combined score for her six dives came in at 266.40, just over ten points lower than that of the highest-scoring individual, Grace Walker of Ball State. Walker finished with a combined score of 276.75, while Camryn Hughes of Eastern Michigan had a score of 271.70 to finish in second place.
200-yard Freestyle Relay:
With the final event of the day kicking off, Szoke again was able to put Ohio in a favorable position. She led off the 200-yard Freestyle Relay and had a personal time of 22.60, tied for second and just 0.01 seconds behind the leader. The positive start for Ohio did not end with Meg Voigt entering the pool, as she kept Ohio in it as she ended in second place behind Akron. Ohio would send out Caroline Dunigan, who also made sure that Ohio did not slip far behind Akron or Miami. Into the final stretch, Ohio turned to Grau to finish strong. Grau did just that, ending Ohio’s run with a 1:29.89 time, just 0.15 off the pool record. Unfortunately for Ohio, Akron’s unit was too good and won the event by establishing a new pool record of its own.
“Akron, obviously, is a good team,” Norman said. “For us to go 1:29.89, that’s probably the fastest we’ve been …Those four girls - Zita, Meg, Caroline and McKenzie - have just been phenomenal so far.”
Team Rankings:
Leading the pack is Akron, who has now opened up a sizable lead with 548.5 points. In second, Miami finds itself with 440.5 points, with Ohio in third place with 381 points. There is a large distance between each of the top three teams, but none of these margins are insurmountable, making Saturday’s competition that much more pivotal.
