Mid-America Conference Championships (Women), Day Two

AKRON, Ohio, February 24. THROUGH day two of the 2012 MAC Swimming and Diving Championships, the only thing that can be determined is that no one will know the team champion until Saturday night. Ohio came into Friday's competition with a 77-point lead over second-place Buffalo, and an 80-point lead over third place Toledo. But it only took the Rockets five events Friday night to catch-up and surpass the Bobcats at the top of the leader board. By the end of Friday night's action, Toledo stretched their lead to 11, with seven events remaining on Saturday.

In the first event of the night the Toledo and Miami tied for first in the 200 yard medley relay. Toledo's team of Maria Bargardi, Laura Lindsay, Beth Rogers and Carly Harter swam stroke-for-stroke with Miami's Leah Thornton, Stacie Clagg, Bekka Westrick and Maddie Kete, to a time of 1:40.48. Both setting new pool records. The tie marks the first time in MAC women's championship history that there has been a tie for the title. Buffalo took third with a time of 1:40.77.

In the 400 IM, Toledo continued to rack up medals as Rachel Johnson took the gold with an ONAT record of 4:14.94. Cat Carr of Akron earned the host's first medal of the championships, swimming to a 4:17.76 for second place. Eastern Michigan's Briana Emig took third with a time of 4:19.30.

For the first time in a race this weekend an ONAT record stood, as Miami went one-two in the 100 Butterfly. Miami's Maegan O'Connor edged out teammate Bekka Westrick by .05 seconds to take the MAC Championship. Toledo's Beth Rogers took third, just .17 seconds off the pace.

Buffalo's Brittney Kuras got things back on track as she was able to top the ONAT record with a 1:46.30. Previous record holder Carly Harter also topped her previous record at the ONAT by posting a second-place time of 1:47.24. Taking third was Ohio's Emma Michaels, who posted a 1:48.13 for the bronze.

Toledo's Laura Lindsay continued on her tear through breaststroke events this weekend as she claimed the 100 yard breaststroke with a pool record of 1:00.15. The mark was just .08 off the MAC Championship record, held by Kelsey Vehr of Miami. Alexis Kain of Bowling Green finished second with a time of 1:01.61, and Bridgette Ruehl of Ball State took third at 1:01.77.

Miami's Leah Thornton lead wall-to-wall as she claimed the 2012 backstroke championship with a time of 54.42, nearly .30 seconds faster than the next competitor. Taking second in the backstroke was Ohio's Rachel Stearns, and in third was Manda Kiefer of Eastern Michigan.

Toledo secured their lead going into Saturday's final day of the MAC Championships with another record setting relay performance . In the 800 freestyle relay, Toledo's Carly Harter, Rachel Johnson, Claire Leichty and Beth Rogers swam to another ONAT record with a championship time of 7:19.17. Ohio took second in the 800 relay, and Miami finished third.

Catch the final day of the MAC Women's Swimming and Diving Championship from Akron, Ohio tomorrow as preliminaries start at 11 AM and finals begin at 7 PM.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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