Team of the year: Women swimmers bring home Ohio's lone MAC Championship

by Elizabeth Price
THE POST

The year the Bobcats took off themselves the pressure to win was the year they finally reclaimed the Mid-American Conference Championship from Miami.

The Ohio women's swimming and diving team entered the last three Mid-American Conference Championships with an undefeated regular season conference record, and heavy expectations to take the championship as well.

Each year, Miami stood in the way however. The RedHawks snapped Ohio's streak of seven consecutive championships in 1996, and successfully defended that crown the next three years.

When the 2000 season rolled around, the Ohio women decided to change their attitude.

"We've taken the focus off winning the MAC and put it more into doing all the little things to prepare for it," senior swimmer Jill Schumacher said in a Feb. 24, 2000 Post article. "That's taking a lot of the pressure off. Every year before the championship, we've had this enormous pressure on us to win the championship and it shouldn't be there because we haven't won. The pressure should be on the person that's coming to defend the title."

Miami arrived in Athens for the 2000 MAC Championships with "Five Alive" shirts, but it was Ohio that jumped out to the early lead on the first day of competition. The Bobcats added steadily to that lead during the next two days, and emerged on top of the nine-team field with 816 points, 82.5 points ahead of second-place Miami. (816-733.5)

The championship, the only one for Ohio athletic teams the past two years, capped a season in which the Bobcats were 13-2 in dual meets and undefeated in the MAC.

"The seniors have been building toward this for a number of years," Ohio Head Coach Greg Werner said. "They got closer and closer, chipped away (at Miami) and finally obtained it this year."

What tipped the scales in Ohio's favor might have been what it didn't do this year. Werner said.

"In the past, everything affected the outcome at end," Werner said. "That was extra added pressure. This year, we didn't even talk about it. We were working hard each and every day, to get better. The little things would lead to the big things."

Several outstanding individual performances helped the Bobcats win the title. Hollie Bonewit, Emily Bresser, Trisha Kessler, Claire Madonia and Joanne Park made the All-MAC first team, as did Kim van Selm, who was named the MAC swimmer of the year. Shannon Orcutt and Rachel Banks made the second team. Park also won senior year of the year, and Werner was recognized as the conference's coach of the year.

"I don't really know how to put it into words," Park said about the experience. "It made the whole year worthwhile."

Her coach was able to explain.

"It's tremendous," Werner said. "You feel invincible; on top of the world - its amazing."