Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
MAC Championships
Records Fall On First Day Of MAC Championships
February 27, 2014 | Women's Swimming & Diving
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Geneva, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University swimming team broke two school records and tied another as the Falcons opened day one of the MAC Swimming and Diving Championships in strong fashion Thursday.
BGSU finished the first day of the meet with 138 points, good enough to tie Buffalo for fourth place through the first six events. A year ago, Bowling Green was in fifth with 135 points after the first day and ended the championship with a third-place finish.
This year, Akron leads with 201 points, followed by Miami with 167. Eastern Michigan has 148 with BGSU and Buffalo tied for fourth. Ohio is sixth with 114 points, Ball State is seventh with 101 and Toledo is last with 85. The Falcons competed without any divers, an event in which all of the three teams ahead of the Falcons scored at least 21 points.
After morning prelims, the evening began with the 200 freestyle relay and Bowling Green's team of Victoria Griffin, Kayla Effinger, Brittany Szekely and Hannah Newman ended third with a time of 1:31.95, less than half-a-second behind the school record of 1:31.50 as well as less than half-a-second away from the winning time of 1:31.53.
The Falcons set themselves up well in the 500 freestyle as Emily Waller qualified for the championship final during the morning prelims (by finishing with one of the top eight times), while Petra Laudova, Tara Capouch and Ericia Nieminen all qualified for the consolation finals (by finishing with one of the next-best eight times).
In surprising fashion, Capouch broke the school record in the event, a mark that was set by Waller a year ago. She swam a 4:52.84 from the consolation heat after finishing with just the 14th best time in the prelims to pick up seven points for the Falcons. In the process, she shattered Waller's school record of 4:53.98 by more than a full second. Laudova, at 4:54.17, and Nieminen, at 4:57.75, both set personal bests as well. Waller finished sixth in the championship heat with a time of 4:55.64.
In the 200 individual medley, Joelle Scheps qualified for the championship final with a time of 2:02.49 in the prelims, just shy of the school record mark of 2:02.29. Jordan Bullock made the consolation finals and then recorded a season-best time of 2:03.48 to place third in the heat. Scheps was seventh in the championship heat with a time of 2:02.79.
In the 50 freestyle, the Falcons qualified two swimmers for the championship heat and two more for the consolation heat. Freshman Victoria Griffin, who already owns the 100 freestyle school record, tied the school record in the prelims with a 23.09 swim. Brittany Szekely also qualified for the championship heat, while both Kayla Effinger and Hannah Newman advanced to the consolation heat.
None of the four were able to equal their times from the morning swim and Griffin ended sixth in 23.48, while Szkeley was seventh in 23.55.
In the final event of the night, Bowling Green again broke a school record. The team of Maya Skorupski, Daniela Carrillo, Joelle Scheps and Victoria Griffin swam a blazing fast 3:40.79 to beat the old record of 3:41.00. The team ended third at the meet, less than a second behind Ball State's winning time of 3:40.06.
Bowling Green will return to the pool Friday at SPIRE Institute for morning prelims at 11 am with finals set to begin at 7 pm.
