The Ohio swimming and diving team moved into first place at the 2008 Mid-American Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships Friday evening. For the third consecutive day the Bobcats used their depth and a complete team effort to move in front of Toledo in the team standings heading into the final day of competition at Alumni Arena Natatorium.

Ohio ended the day with 426.5 points, followed by Toledo (416.5), Eastern Michigan (366), Miami (356), host Buffalo (246), Bowling Green (244.5) Akron (166) and BallState (117.5).

Ohio freshmen Rachel Heim (San Diego, Calif.) won the first individual MAC title of the championships for the Bobcats, taking first in the 100-yard butterfly (55.17) in the second event of the evening. Fellow freshmen Amanda Cecere (Chelmsford, Mass.) added 16 points with a third place finish in the event (55.43), after breaking the UB pool record in the morning preliminaries. Cecere had the fastest qualifying time and broke the pool record with a time of 55.06, topping the time of 55.24 set by future U.S. Olympian Jenny Thompson in 1989. Both Heim and Cecere’s times were NCAA B Cut times.

Ohio trailed first-place Toledo by 31.5 points entering the 100-yard butterfly, but the strong showing by the freshmen lifted the Bobcats into a first place tie with Toledo at 317.5-317.5.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Ohio used three top 10 finishes to narrowly edge in front of Toledo, 346.5-345.5, into first place. Senior co-captain Ilse Petersen (Johannesburg, South Africa) was the top finisher for Ohio, taking sixth (1:50.90), followed by freshman Amanda Traylor (Los Alamitos, Calif.) in ninth (1:51.38) and sophomore Chelsey Bower (Bethel Park, Pa.) in 10th (1:52.12).

Toledo reclaimed the lead in 100-yard breaststroke, as the Bobcats failed to have a swimmer qualify for the finals of the event.

In the following event, Ohio made sure Toledo’s lead was short lived, placing three swimmers in the top six in the 100-yard backstroke. Ohio senior co-captain Emily Wylam (Yorktown, Va.) came up just short of her attempt at three-straight MAC titles in the event, finishing behind Buffalo’s Andrea Lehner (55.74) with an NCAA B Cut time of 55.88. Senior Mallory Rico (Mentor, Ohio) and Heim finished fifth and sixth with times of 56.97 and 57.43, respectively, and the Bobcats jumped back into first place with 394.5 points heading into the final event of the evening.

In the preliminaries of the 100-yard backstroke Bowling Green’s Alisha Yee set a new MAC record time (55.30), besting Wylam’s previous MAC record of 55.69 set at the 2006 championships.

Ohio ended the third day of competition with another near record-breaking performance in the 400-yard medley relay. Wylam, Hahn-Lawson, Cecere and Petersen teamed to finish the relay in a time of 3:46.04, the second-fastest time in school history. The mark was good for third place, behind Eastern Michigan’s pool-record time of 3:44.63 and Toledo’s time of 3:45.00.

In the first final of the evening, Ohio junior Ashley Marion (London, Ontario) was looking to claim her third MAC title in the 400-yard individual medley. Marion finished in a lifetime-best and an NCAA B Cut time of 4:23.08, which was good for second place, as Toledo’s Meg Reissig touched in a new MAC record time of 4:19.10. Joining Marion in the top 10 were Hahn-Lawson in fifth (4:26.64) and sophomore Leah Giancarli (Akron, Ohio) in ninth (4:30.42), setting the tone for the rest of the day for the Bobcats.

The championships conclude tomorrow with the preliminary heats beginning at 11 a.m. and the finals beginning at 7 p.m.

The Bobcats will be looking to capture their 10th MAC Championship (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001). Team Standings Through Event 13 1. Ohio University-426.5 2. University of Toledo-416.5 3. Eastern Michigan University-366 4. Miami University-356 5. University at Buffalo-246 6. Bowling Green State Univ.-244.5 7. The University of Akron-166 8. Ball State University-117.5