A RedHawk swimmer comes up for a breath of air during the butterfly Saturday afternoon as Miami fell to Eastern Michigan.
After securing a 147-88 win and a 118.5 tie against Kenyon College Friday, the Miami University women's and men's swimming and diving teams, respectively, were unable to keep their momentum and both fell to Eastern Michigan University (159-141 and 191.5-108.5) during the final home dual meet of the season Saturday.
Friday night both the men's and women's team jumped out to early leads, and while the men wound up tying, the women never looked back, cruising to the easy victory. However, Saturday the men settled for too many second place finishes, while the women took an early lead, but couldn't close out the meet toward the end, and both teams lost their final home meet of the season.
Despite the disappointing conclusion of the RedHawks' home contests for the 2007-08 season, there was no shortage of impressive individual performances from the Red and White.
Many of these highlights came from members of the senior class, just in time for them to be honored at Saturday's dual meet, which doubled as senior day.
One of the most electrifying swims of the weekend came from senior Ryan McHugh Friday night as he powered in from behind in the final leg of the men's 400-free relay team. McHugh's effort won that event for the 'Hawks and ultimately tied the men's final score against Kenyon.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself, especially on relays when I'm swimming for a team," McHugh said. "I guess being a senior, I feel a lot of pressure to perform, but the team is really the driving force. We had good relay swims from Chase Mortimer and Nick DuPuis (Friday against Kenyon) that also really helped out the 400-free relay. They really stepped up."
McHugh also added three more personal victories for the weekend. In Friday's meet against Kenyon, he finished the 50-free in :21.25 and the 100-free in :45.55. Also, during Saturday's competition, McHugh recorded a new season-best time, winning the 200-free in 1:41.22.
Seniors Kathryn Stephens and Paul Ricard, as well as junior Allison Stevens, also added multiple first place finishes during the weekend.
Stephens dominated in butterfly events over the course of the weekend, winning the 200-fly Friday with a time of 2:06.52 and the 100-fly Saturday in 57.18.
"(Saturday) was senior night," Stephens said. "I haven't really felt an added pressure to go out at my best, but it's just something I've wanted to do. I think overall, though, it was good for me to have one more go in this pool because it was another opportunity to see what changes I can make, what little things I still need to work on before it's too late, before MACs."
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While Stephens stepped up her game for the women's team in the stroke events, Ricard was solid in distance for the men's squad. Friday night, Ricard recorded a winning, season-best time of 1:43.11 in the 200-free, and also clocked in a 4:38.52 in the 500-free, also good for first place. Additionally, Ricard had a superior performance on his senior day as he swam to a first place finish in the 1,000-free with a time of 9:28.98, beating his former season best by nearly four seconds. He then went on for a repeat victory in the 500-free as well with a time of 4:38.41.
Emphasizing the amount of depth that the RedHawks possess, Stevens was successful in the freestyle sprints during Friday night's contest against Kenyon. Stevens won both the 200-free and the 100-free in times of 1:54.83 and :53.77, respectively.
"I think overall we did really well this weekend," Stephens said. "We were down in some events and up in others, but we function really well as a team and when you break it down into sprint groups and distance groups and stroke groups, those groups are really tightly knit within the team and we're all here for each other."
McHugh also cited depth as one of the team's primary strengths.
"A lot of our depth guys are really starting to step up and become more confident," McHugh said. "So I would just say that across the board we've had some really good performances."
The RedHawks have just one more dual meet remaining in their season before they are set to compete at the Mid-American Conference Championships later this month. Next Saturday, the teams will travel to Muncie, Ind., to face off against Ball State University.
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