Toledo Drops to Seventh Place After Day Two of MAC Championships

Thursday, February 23

Oxford, OH

ALL DAY

University of Toledo

Mid-American Conference Championships

Freshman Bec Welke recorded a new lifetime-best time of 24.19 in the 50 free two times on Thursday.

Toledo Drops to Seventh Place After Day Two of MAC Championships

2/23/2017 9:47:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving

Day Two Results (PDF)

OXFORD, OH – Toledo dropped into seventh-place after the second day of the 2016-17 Mid-American Conference Championships on Thursday evening. UT has earned 83 points in the first seven events.

In both Thursday's preliminary and final heats, 11 of 18 swims for the Rockets were season- or lifetime-bests.

"I thought that we performed very well all day today and I was really proud of how our team stepped up to the challenges," said head Coach Jonas Persson. "We would have earned a few more points with diving so that hurts us a little. We have a big day tomorrow morning with great potential to make it back into the scoring finals in many events. We are on a great path to a successful meet and successful end to a great season."

Freshman Izzy Jones was the only Rocket to swim in an individual event in the night's final heats. Jones swam to a first-place finish in the consolation finals of the 500 free with a time of 4:50.23. Her time was .13 seconds away from tying her season-best, and it was faster than Miami's fourth-place finish in the championship heat (4:50.40).

Toledo's 200 free relay team placed seventh with a time of 1:34.10, just .01 seconds faster than Ball State in eighth place. Freshman Bec Welke led off for the Rockets, tying her lifetime-best time of 24.19 that she recorded earlier in the day in the 50 free prelims. The rest of UT's relay team followed Welke with season-best times: Maggie Hack (23.03), Gabbi Haaraoja (23.63), Allison Dicke (23.25).

Earlier in the day, Toledo's swimmers saw plenty of personal success in the pool. In the 500 free prelims, Hack touched first in heat five with a season-best time of 4:57.13, while Rachael Hester (5:03.46), freshman Anna Dunphy (5:11.26) and freshman Corinne Harris (5:13.15) each posted a season-fastest time as well.

Five out of six Rockets competing in the 200 IM preliminaries touched at a season-best finish, including sophomore Bailey Cahill (2:15.48), junior Jess Avery (2:09.97), junior Ciana Heaston (2:12.03), junior Brittany Puthoff (2:10.38) and junior Allie Brinkhoff (2:06.36).

In the 50 free prelims, freshman Duda Sales, a native of Santo Andre, Brazil, swam to a 24.66 finish in her first time ever swimming the race in yards.

Day three of competition begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with preliminaries at Miami's Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center. Championship heats of the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay are slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.

Friday's championship heats will be streamed live on ESPN3. Fans can find links to the ESPN3 video on the Toledo swimming & diving schedule page. All results can be found on Meet Mobile.

Fans can also follow @SwimDiveToledo on Twitter for live updates from Oxford.

Team Scores Through Day Two