Despite strong individual performances, the women's swimming team dropped its first two Mid-American Conference meets of the season, losing to the Miami RedHawks on Friday as well as the Ohio Bobcats on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon, the Bulls (1-2, 0-2 MAC) dropped their first meet to Miami (2-1, 1-0 MAC) by a score of 188.5-108.5. The victory by the Redhawks was their 47th consecutive MAC dual meet victory.
"I was very pleased on how the girls swam at Miami," said head coach Andy Bashor. "We were very competitive in the meet, and we swam better."
The Bulls won six of the 16 events in the meet, with sophomore Andrea Lehner taking two races herself. Lehner began the meet with a victory in the 100-yard backstroke in 57.04, as well as winning the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.40. Other winners for the Bulls included sophomores Caitlin Reilly and Sam Palma, as well as freshman Jordan Deren. Reilly won the 200-yard backstroke in 2:09.70, beating her top time of the season by five seconds. Deren won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:09.15, beating Miami's Kathryn Stephens by three-fourths of a second. Palma took the 100-yard butterfly in a season best time of 57.63.
Miami swept the top three spots in the 1,000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard breaststroke, as well as winning both the 400-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. Three Miami freshman claimed the top spots in the 1,000 yard-freestyle with Sarah Bullock clocking in with a time of 10:30.53 to win the event. Fellow RedHawks Kelsey Vehr and Jensen Henry finished second and third, respectively.
Hoping to rebound from the loss, the Bulls entered Bobcat country on Saturday looking for a way to win, but could not get past Ohio (4-0, 2-0 MAC), losing 166-129.
"I'd say that we did alright," Bashor said. "There were definitely areas we could improve in, like swimming faster. There were definitely things we could have done better in that meet, but we were going against one of the best teams in the conference. They are a team that we look at and want to be at the top like them."
Lehner took two individual events at the meet, winning both the 200-yard freestyle as well as the 200-yard backstroke. In the freestyle event, she touched the wall in 1:52.11, beating Ohio's Ilse Petersen by a tenth of a second, as well as cutting a half-second off her season-best time. Lehner also went on to win the 200-yard backstroke in 2:06.15.
Palma won the 100-yard butterfly for the second time in two days, clocking in with a time of 58.62. Sophomore Kim Dale won the 400-yard individual medley in 4:41.60, as well as sophomore Meili Carpenter winning the 3-meter diving competition with a final score of 283.95 points for six dives.
Ohio won 10 of the first 12 events, thanks to the effort from Stacey Huber. Huber placed first in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:20.30, and the 500-yard freestyle in 5:06.07. By doing so, Huber became the fourth freshman at Ohio to place first in an event through their first three meets of the season. Bobcat senior co-captain Emily Wylam swam well, touching the wall first in the 100-yard backstroke in 58.72, and swimming the first leg in the 200-yard medley in a time of 1:47.76. Her team placed first at the event.
While Bashor is encouraged by his team's performance this weekend, he understands that there is still a lot of work to do.
"There is a simple way to summarize our performance," he said. "We've come a long way since last year's meets, but as the outcomes of our current meets show us, we still have a long way to go."
The Bulls return home this upcoming weekend to host defending MAC champion Eastern Michigan as well as Ball State in a dual-meet with the men's swimming team. UB faces the Eagles Friday, Nov. 9 at 4 p.m., and the Cardinals Saturday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. Both events will be held at Alumni Arena Natatorium.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
