Ball State Wins Men, Ohio U Wins Women for Split at Bobcat Senior Day

ATHENS, OH, February 8. THE Ohio swimming and diving squads split with Ball State on Senior Day Saturday afternoon in the Ohio Aquatics Center, per Bobcat reports.

The Bobcat women registered a 171-129 victory over the Cardinals while the men came up short to Ball State by a final of 176-122.

The Bobcat women (8-1-1, 4-2-1 MAC) captured 12 of the meet's 16 events in the last dual meet of the season. The Class of 2005 didn't disappoint on Senior Day as they contributed to six of the Bobcats victories. Jessica Waites (Toledo, Ohio) was one of three Ohio women to repeat as event winners in the victory. The senior touched the wall first in both the 500 and 1000 freestyle events in times of 5:13.74 and 10:35.11, respectively.

Senior Melissa Dunn (Noblesville, Ind.) won the 100 backstroke with a season-best time of 59.26 and took second in the 200 back with a 2:08.53 finish. Classmate Becky McGaughey (Nicholasville, Ky.) was a winner in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.15 and a runner-up in the 1000 freestyle to Waites with a clock of 10:40.97.

Other repeat winners for the Bobcat women include Barbara de Sa' (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) taking the 50 freestyle in 25.12 and the 100 butterfly in 59.10 and Debbie Thornbury (Orange Park, Fla.) capturing both the one- and three-meter diving events with scores of 268.95 and 266.78, respectively.

Freshmen standouts Michaela Hahn-Lawson (Painesville, Ohio) and Ilse
Petersen (Johannesburg, South Africa) each added victories in the winning effort. Hahn-Lawson took first in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:07.66 while Petersen captured the 200 freestyle with a 1:54.17 clock and tied teammate McGaughey for the win in the 100 freestyle.

Senior women Amanda Smith (Chicago, Ill.) and Sara Smith (Worthington, Ohio) also contributed to the victory in their last regular season home meet. Amanda finished second in the 200 butterfly in 2:10.40 and took third in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:41.41. Sarah finished third in the one-meter dive with a score of 2:14.50.

Dunn, Hahn-Lawson, de Sa', and Petersen turned in the top time this season in the 400 medley relay with a winning 3:55.98 finish. Lindsey DeStefano (Wildwood, Mo.), McGaughey, Sigal Simsolo (Kibbutz Yakum, Israel), and Petersen closed out the relay sweep for the Ohio women by taking the 800 freestyle with a time of 7:50.55.

On the men's side, the Bobcats' six event victories were not enough to get a tally in the conference win column this season. Senior Mike Shelby (New Albany, Ohio) highlighted his final competition at home with wins in the 100 backstroke (53.11) and 100 butterfly (51.68) while freshman Luke Herlehy (Batavia, Ill.) was a two- event winner as well, capturing the 500 (4:48.67) and 1000 (9:49.85) freestyle events. Junior Donald Jupp (Stow, Ohio) added the fifth individual victory for the Bobcats in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.47

Senior Brian Teske (Dayton, Ohio) turned in the best Ohio time of the season in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.31) to finish second and came in as the runner-up in the 200 event as well (2:13.01). Classmate Rick Wade (Wooster, Ohio) took second in the one-meter dive (288.60) and finished third in the three-meter event (259.88).

Other Bobcat seniors to contribute in their final home meet include Jan Wuttig's (Solon, Ohio) fourth place finish in the 100 freestyle (49.51) and Chris Mance's (South Easton, Mass.) fourth in the 500 freestyle (5:02.27).

Shelby, Wuttig, Greg Flecher (Medina, Ohio), and Jupp teamed to record a season-best time of 3:13.21 in the 400 freestyle relay.

The Ball State women (6-4, 4-3 MAC) saw four-different swimmers capture events while the Cardinal men's (3-2, 2-1 MAC) Kurtis Leer and Adam Konopka won two events apiece.

"We're very happy and very proud of the seniors," said Ohio Head Coach Greg Werner. "I thought they did a very good job in leading the team and had some fantastic performances."

The Ohio women and men will resume action in the MAC Championships. The Bobcats will host the 2005 Women's MAC Championships on February 24-26 while the men will travel to Oxford for the Men's Championships March 3-5.

"I think that there are a number of areas that we need to improve upon, and we will improve upon them between now and the championships," said Werner.

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