Sammy Dallal/THE POST The Ohio swimming and diving team has been vocal supporters of Ohio athletic teams this fall. The team goes to sporting events as a team activity and is often joined by other Ohio squads, such as the lacrosse team.

"Let's go Bobcats!"

This familiar cheer is common in Peden Stadium, but is not often heard at Shafer Street Field on Oct. 8, however, cheers were loud and clear at the Ohio soccer and field hockey teams' home matches.

The Ohio swimming and diving team came out to support its fellow Bobcats in the soccer and field hockey matches that afternoon. Ohio Swimming Head Coach Greg Werner organized it as a team event.

"We try to support all the other programs," Werner said. "It's important not just to focus on what we're doing, but on what other student athletes are doing."

As a former athlete and a coach, Werner said he knows how important it is to have crowd support. While the outcome of a competition is determined by what a team does in practice and in game competition, crowd support guarantees home-field advantage.

"At least this way we have 30 or 40 people screaming and yelling, so it's not a neutral field," he said.

Werner said he looks at the fall sports schedule each year and identifies matches his team could attend. He then contacts other coaches to find out whether the matches he has selected would be good games to go to.

But Werner doesn't always plan so far in advance. When the Ohio field hockey team faced No. 14 Ball State last Friday, the swimming and diving team was there, even though it had been to a field hockey game a week earlier.

"I gave the team the afternoon off again," Werner said. "They had done good work previously and have done good work since.

"I knew we could be helpful in the match. (The field hockey team) had lost in double overtime at Ball State and I thought a better crowd could help them win."

Nick Melillo, one of this year's swim team captains, said supporting other Ohio athletic teams is a fun experience for the swim team. But the team does not come for its own benefit.

"Just supporting other athletes is really good," Melillo said.

Jonathan Friend emphasized the benefits to other teams as well.

"It's great to come out and support the people you live with and who you are part of Ohio athletics with," he said. "They put in the same hours we do, so it's great to come out and watch them perform."

Swimmer interaction is another advantage the swim team gains, Emily Bresser said.

"It's a chance for us to interact and to cheer," she said. "It helps us prepare for cheering at our upcoming meets."

The swim team has been practicing for several weeks, Melillo said. Ohio's competition season begins Oct. 29 when the teams travel to Columbus to face Ohio State at 6 p.m.

As the team's attention turns to its own season, it will not attend any more fall contests, Werner said.

The swim team isn't the only Ohio team that shows support for other athletes. Werner and Melillo both said athletes in other sports show up at swim meets. The lacrosse team also has been visible at fall sports events.

Bresser stressed the importance of inter-team camaraderie at Ohio as a reason for the support from her team as well as the lacrosse team.

"We're all Ohio," she said.