Miami Student

Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: Sports

A RedHawk swimmer comes up for a breath of air during the butterfly Saturday afternoon as Miami fell to Eastern Michigan.

After securing a 147-88 win and a 118.5 tie against Kenyon College Friday, the Miami University women's and men's swimming and diving teams, respectively, were unable to keep their momentum and both fell to Eastern Michigan University (159-141 and 191.5-108.5) during the final home dual meet of the season Saturday.

Friday night both the men's and women's team jumped out to early leads, and while the men wound up tying, the women never looked back, cruising to the easy victory. However, Saturday the men settled for too many second place finishes, while the women took an early lead, but couldn't close out the meet toward the end, and both teams lost their final home meet of the season.

Despite the disappointing conclusion of the RedHawks' home contests for the 2007-08 season, there was no shortage of impressive individual performances from the Red and White.

Many of these highlights came from members of the senior class, just in time for them to be honored at Saturday's dual meet, which doubled as senior day.

One of the most electrifying swims of the weekend came from senior Ryan McHugh Friday night as he powered in from behind in the final leg of the men's 400-free relay team. McHugh's effort won that event for the 'Hawks and ultimately tied the men's final score against Kenyon.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself, especially on relays when I'm swimming for a team," McHugh said. "I guess being a senior, I feel a lot of pressure to perform, but the team is really the
driving force. We had good relay swims from Chase Mortimer and Nick DuPuis (Friday against Kenyon) that also really helped out the 400-free relay. They really stepped up."

McHugh also added three more personal victories for the weekend. In Friday's meet against Kenyon, he finished the 50-free in :21.25 and the 100-free in :45.55. Also, during Saturday's competition, McHugh recorded a new season-best time, winning the 200-free in 1:41.22.

Seniors Kathryn Stephens and Paul Ricard, as well as junior Allison Stevens, also added multiple first place finishes during the weekend.

Stephens dominated in butterfly events over the course of the weekend, winning the 200-fly Friday with a time of 2:06.52 and the 100-fly Saturday in 57.18.

Continued...

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