Women’s swimming: Ohio State faces first conference opponent of season

Fallon Perl
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 04:56:37 +0000
Sports, Swimming & Diving, Chantel Wynn, Meg Bailey, Ohio State swimming, Taylor Vargo

The OSU women’s swimming team takes off during a meet against Ohio Nov. 9 at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Credit: Lantern file photo

After a successful weekend at the University of Cincinnati, the Ohio State women’s swimming team is looking forward to another road trip this Friday to face conference opponent Michigan State, followed by a home meet against Akron and Pittsburgh on Saturday.

After competing in their fair share of races against teams outside of their conference this month, the Buckeyes are looking forward to getting a taste of some Big Ten competition on Friday.

“It’s going to be a really good opportunity to have team building, and hopefully come back with a few wins,” senior Taylor Vargo said. “Michigan State is a Big Ten team, and it’s always exciting to go and compete against someone that we’re going to be competing against at the end of the season.”

In addition to racing the Spartans, Vargo said she and her teammates are looking forward to their nonconference competition on Saturday as well. The team will race the MAC champions, Akron, and Pittsburgh from the ACC, so the weekend will be full of good competition, Vargo said.

A change of scenery can prove to be rather challenging at times, but is necessary in preparing them for the future.

“Away meets are necessary in helping us develop adjustment methods when swimming in facilities other than our own,” said senior Chantel Wynn. “It’s always nice to swim in our own pool, but I think it’s important to swim away once in a while heading into Big Ten’s at Purdue.”

Wynn and her teammates are also using this away meet as an opportunity to spend more time team building before their trip to Purdue next month for the Big Ten Conference Tournament.

“Traveling back and forth in a small period of time can be a little tough,” junior Meg Bailey said, “but we treat that time on the bus as more than transportation, but as time to bond as a team.”

Aside from the challenge of traveling back and forth, the team looks at the meets this weekend as additional opportunities to improve their skills, techniques, and individual times before the conference tournament.

“Every chance you get to race is an opportunity to perfect something or work on something that needs to be done before Big Ten’s,” Vargo said. “Each meet is just a practice run for our Big Ten meet.”

Wynn explained their aspirations as a team for Friday and Saturday.

“This weekend, our goal is to carry out each of our race plans, hone in on our technique, support each other, and have some fun,” Wynn said. “As we head into conference, I am confident that our team will execute with increased focus and excitement. Get ready to see some fast swims.”

The competition on Friday is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., while Saturday’s competition is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.