Akron Maintains Lead Through Second Day of MAC Swimming and Diving Championships

The Akron Zips won one event on Friday evening and will take a 46-point lead into the final day of the Mid-American Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Zips took home gold in the first event of the evening, the 200-yard medley relay, when Hannah Raspopovich touched home in 1:39.69. They won the race by one second over Buffalo, while Ball State finished third. In the 800-yard freestyle relay that concluded the evening, Akron took home third place with a time of 7:23.67

Akron's night could have actually been better, but they were largely held out of the championship heats in the first four of the night's five individual swimming events. Of those four events, the Zips placed only three swimmers in the championship finals, and none of them finished higher than fifth. However, in the final individual event of the night, Akron earned three spots in the championship final of the 100 yard backstroke. Laura Savarian finished in second place with a time of 0:54.21.

Bowling Green was one of the biggest movers of the day, vaulting into third place. They finished the night just eight points behind second-place Miami and within striking distance of Akron. The Falcons did not win a gold on Friday evening, but their swimmers were constantly finishing near the top.

BGSU's 800-yard freestyle relay team finished second, while Daniela Carrillo earned second in the 100-yard breaststroke. Victoria Griffin and Joelle Scheps posted third- and fourth-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, and three Falcons participated in the championship final of the 400-yard individual medley.

Buffalo and Ohio are further behind in the standings, but both teams featured some outstanding individual performances.

Buffalo's Spencer Rodriguez won the 400 IM in 4:17.21. In the 200 free, Brittney Kuras won the MAC championship io with a pool-record time of 1:47.24, and teammate Jessica Powers finished one second behind in second place. As noted above, the Bulls won the 800 free relay, and their swimmers also finished second in the 200 medley relay.

Ohio's sophomore Addy Ferguson had perhaps the best individual night of the meet so far and won two MAC championships in the process Ferguson set a MAC record by finishing the 100-yard backstroke in 0:53.10. She also set a pool record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 0:53.48.

The night's other championship went to Ball State senior Bridgette Ruehl, who finished the 100-yard breaststroke in a pool-record 1:01.13.

The final day of the championship meet will include six events. Preliminary races in the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke and 200-yard butterfly will take place beginning at 11:00 a.m., and the championship heats in those four events plus the 1650-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relay begin at 7:00 p.m. in Geneva, Ohio.