The BG women’s swimming and diving team will find itself to be the smallest team in its next meet. But assistant coach Mark Howard doesn’t foresee that being a problem when it comes to posting good finishes.

“We have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Howard said. “Some of those schools don’t even know where BGSU is.”

The Falcons are traveling to Ohio State today for the three-day OSU Invitational and will face off against 11 bigger Division I schools from all across the country.

The BG swimmers will be facing off against Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Utah and Denver. The divers will be taking on Alabama, Arizona State, Denver, Iowa, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Purdue, Ohio State and Utah.

“Ohio State has a really great program going,” Howard said. “And last year we battled very well with Denver.”

In the Falcons last meet against Miami on Nov. 10, they lost 177-122, but had several promising finishes.

Sophomore Meg Richardson won her first race of the season against Miami by setting a new personal-best in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.37). Another sophomore, Frankie Houck, also swam well against Miami, taking the 50 and 100-yard freestyles.

Junior Alisha Yee has 13 wins on the season and won three races her last time out. Ashley Belrose is pacing the divers with two wins on the year.

Howard is confident the Falcons can continue posting good times despite the heightened competition and long layoff.

“For our goals at Ohio State, the layoff is a good thing,” Howard said. “We were able to focus on each person individually.”

Last season, BG traveled to OSU for the first time and finished seventh of 14 teams.

Yee was a top swimmer for the Falcons finishing in the top 10 three times including a third place in the 100-yard backstroke with a then career-best time of 56.86.

Kim Albin and Frankie Houck also added three personal bests last season.

“I do believe there will definitely be top eight finishes and some opportunities for top three finishes,” Howard said. “For our girls at this point in their season, it would be excellent.”

Howard said the team is looking to post in-season bests and possibly some career best times. On top of that, he wants to see every relay team do better than last year at this meet.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if relays this weekend are right on par with what we did at [the Mid-American Conference Championships] last year,” Howard said.

The meet kicks off today 11 a.m. with swimming preliminaries and diving finals begin Sunday at 12 p.m. and swimming finals at 3 p.m.