Miami sophomore swimmer Aubrey Kluth competes in the 100-yard breastroke during the men’s and women’s dual meet against Xavier University Oct. 19. Kluth took first place in the event. (Ricardo Trevino | The Miami Student)
After splitting its first two meets of the season against Purdue University and Xavier University at home, the Miami University women's swimming and diving team defeated Mid-American Conference (MAC) foe the University of Akron 187.5-109.5 in its first road meet of the season.
Miami (2-1, 1-0 MAC) took first place in 12 of the 16 events against Akron.
"We had a good meet," head coach Mark Davis said. "Our girls did a great job. I was surprised with how well they did... With each race, we're getting back to the racing mentality... The new things we're trying are working well. We have some things we need to sharpen up and we need to pay attention to detail. This weekend, we're going up against a good Bowling Green team that's much improved."
Sophomore Aubrey Kluth, sophomore Shannon Ahearn and junior Stephanie Pearce claimed first, second and third in the 1,000-yard freestyle respectively.
Freshman Julia Campbell, junior Whitney Mitchell and junior Caitlin Fujan took the top spots in the 200-yard freestyle while junior Katie Bootsma claimed first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.48 seconds. Freshman Stephanie LeMire recorded a time of 1:05.11 as she finished first in the 100-yard backstroke. Bootsma and LeMire took first in the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard breaststroke, respectively.
"Katie Bootsma... had a great meet," Davis said. "Aubrey Kluth finished strong after last week and we talked about that. I've been impressed with what Stephanie LeMire has done as a freshman."
Bootsma had praise for the freshmen.
"What really stood out to me about our win in Akron yesterday was the strength of the freshman class," Bootsma said. "It is impressive to see them contributing so much already and it really helps inspire the rest of the team. For me, it was fun to get my first double-win of my collegiate career by winning both the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard backstroke. The times I posted for these events are faster than I was at this point in the season my past two years at Miami which makes me excited for the rest of the our dual meets and ultimately seeing if we have a shot at winning another MAC championship."
Bootsma said she was happy with how the team performed.
"Even though Akron doesn't have much depth as a team, it was still impressive to see our girls go 1-2-3 in races while posting impressive times," Bootsma said. "We know we still have a lot of hard training ahead of us, but dual meets are good indicators of what we have been doing right since training started in August.
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