The Miami University men and women's swimming and diving teams had strong showcases during winter break as they each downed the University of Cincinnati and the University of Evansville. The women's team picked up a victory against the University at Buffalo while the men's team fell.
The men's team (4-2) started winter break on the right track as it defeated Cincinnati 162-184 in Oxford. Senior Dan Nemeth, junior Joe Baumgartner and freshman Grant Stafford were key contributors to the RedHawk victory as each of them registered an individual victory along with a relay win.
Miami took 11 meets in 171-112 triumph against Evansville. The 'Hawks fell 132-168 at Buffalo as Baumgartner accounted for 26 of the RedHawks' points.
"It has been a busy four weeks," head coach Pete Lindsay said. "The team trained in Plantation Florida [Swimmers] and Coral Springs Florida [Divers] from Dec. 27 until we returned Jan. 7 for a dual meet with Cincinnati ... Performances against UC were average and our depth enabled a win. We swam at Evansville last weekend and had some good performances and very good racing in some of the non-traditional events. ie, sprinters going the 100's of backstroke or breaststroke instead of freestyle. ...The depth in this meet [against Buffalo] was a strength for us which we will have to capitalize on as we prepare for the MAC Championships."
To start the break, the women's team (7-1) worked out with James Madison University prior to claiming their sixth straight win in a 177-119 victory against the Bearcats at the Nixon Aquatic Center. In that matchup, 10 athletes finished first, with senior Nikki Craft and freshman Stephanie LeMire each taking two events.
The 'Hawks continued to excel as they downed Evansville on the road 183-109 behind the 13 first place finishes. They pushed their MAC dual meet record to 4-0 with a 168-132 triumph over the Bulls.
"I really felt the women did a great job," head coach Mark Davis said. "We knew Buffalo matched up with us very well, so we knew it would be a tough meet. It seems every meet this year someone else has stepped up and carried us through the meet. The Breaststrokers, Divers and Bufferflyers did a great job. The turning point in the meet was us going one, two, three in the 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly in back to back event and then finishing the first half of the meet by finishing one, three, five in diving. It was an outstanding team effort."
Freshman Kathleen Dodson (LINK 8) echoed the sentiments of her head coach.
"I think we did really well for having been on the road for 12 hours the day before the meet to get to Buffalo," she said. "We left at 7 a.m. and stopped in Geneva, Ohio to swim at Spire Institute which is where MACs will be next month. When we finally arrived in Buffalo it was approaching 7 p.m... We are a really strong team and we are going to have two really good meets against Eastern Michigan University and Ohio University coming up these next couple weeks before we get ready for championships at the end of February."
Both teams return to action 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1 in Oxford as they take on Eastern Michigan University.
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