March 4, 2003
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LOOKING FOR A CROWNING MOMENT: Although the Miami men's swimming and diving team entered the season extremely young and inexperienced, it will be heading into the Mid-American Conference Championships in Buffalo, N.Y. this weekend with an entire regular season under its belt. Buffalo hosts the MAC Championships Thursday through Saturday at Alumni Arena Natatorium. Preliminaries begin at noon with finals at 7:00 pm each day. The RedHawks have not competed in nearly a month after a dissapointing performance at the same venue on the campus of the University at Buffalo. Miami will look to rebound from that performance and show that they have gained valuable experience during the 2002-03 season.
A PERFECT BALL: Senior Kelly Ball sure won't be lacking momentum when he heads to the MAC Championships on Thursday. Ball won two events against Buffalo and Eastern Michigan in his last meet on Feb. 8, to go undefeated in every individual race during the entire MAC season. Ball had already won the 200-yard freestyle in 142.23 before he out-touched Eastern Michigan's Justin Breitigam by two hundredths of a second in the 200-yard butterfly up in Buffalo for a 10-0 personal record in the MAC.
AYE, AYE CAPTAIN: Senior Dave Bergan was instrumental in helping the RedHawks defeat their rival, Ohio University, in the "Battle of the Bricks" on Jan. 31. In his last meet in Oxford, the team captain started the evening off by swimming the last leg of the 400-yard medley relay for Miami's first victory. Bergan won his second race of the evening by touching the wall first for the sprint victory in the 50-yard freestyle. In Bergan's last race at Miami, he won the 100-yard freestyle to give him three victories on the evening to help Miami in a thrilling victory over its conference rival.
BATTLE OF THE BRICKS: In a year-long contest between Ohio and Miami called "The Battle of the Bricks," Miami ended the Jan. 31 weekend with an 11-4 lead after winning both the men's and women's meets. Since then, Miami has extended their lead to 12-4 after defeating the Bobcats in women's basketball. Each time the Bobcats and RedHawks meet in varsity athletic competition, the outcome is counted as part of the year's series, including tournament play. Seventeen of Miami's 20 varsity sports are part of the year-long rivalry series.
ON THE BALL: Senior Kelly Ball had quite a week starting on Jan. 17 and ending on Jan. 25. Ball earned two come-from-behind individual first-place finishes over Wright State on Friday evening. On Saturday, Jan. 18, Ball won two more individual races, over swimming power Kenyon College. On Monday, Ball was named MAC Swimmer of the Week and on Tuesday, Ball became only the second Miami male during the 2002-03 season to earn MAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week honor. On Saturday, Jan. 25, Ball celebrated his 22nd birthday.
DIVING IN HEAD FIRST: The Miami men's diving team has only lost one event in more than two and a half months, dating back to Nov. 16 against Ohio State. Sophomore Peter Donohue has not lost a one-meter diving event during the span while also winning a majority of the three-meter events. Donohue was the first on his team to be named MAC Swimmer of the Week on Jan. 14 after sweeping both the one- and three-meter diving competitions against the University of Cincinnati on Friday evening. On Dec. 6, Donohue led the RedHawks at the Miami Invitational when he set a Miami record and a MAC record in men's one-meter diving with a final score of 356.20 for first-place.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Although the record did not reflect anything different during most of December and some of January, the Red and White did not lie dormant over the break. Miami traveled to Plantation, Fla. where they trained for the second half of the season. The RedHawks participated in an intersquad, non-scoring meet on the Dec. 21 to cap off the stay down south.
HITTIN' THE BOOKS: Besides the obvious work the RedHawks put in the pool, Miami showed their academic prowess this past semester. With a team grade point average just below 3.0, the RedHawks stayed on the academic all-American list. The Red and White had 13 swimmers earn above a 3.0 GPA and five swimmers were named to the dean's list.
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