The BG swim team will head into the Mid-American Conference Swimming and Diving Championships today with some confidence due to the success it achieved this season.
Under first-year coach Petra Martin, the Falcons have improved their record, winning two more meets than they won all of last year.
Martin has preached all season the essence of hard work and finishing every race hard in order to get stronger.
Today, BG will put all that to the test.
The Falcons travel to Athens, Ohio, for the 2011 MAC Championships, which takes place over four days.
BG has won three meets and came close to tallying two more victories this season.
With about a three week layoff, the swimmers come into this event eager to show off their talent. They also have experience in the championships.
As a freshman two years ago, Vicky Yu won gold in the 200 butterfly event in the 2009 MAC Championships, which named her to first-team All-MAC status.
In the same event, Sarah Burston took bronze with a third-place finish.
Also, Meg Richardson, now a graduate assistant with the team, broke three school records and earned second-team All-MAC at last year’s MAC Championships.
Heading into this year’s championships in the breaststroke events, Alexis Kain and Amanda Rom look to be contenders for the medals.
Rom holds the MAC’s sixth-best time in the 100 breaststroke event and the fifth-best in the 200 breaststroke.
Kain holds the fifth-best time in the 100-yard event.
Yu and Burston will again be contenders in the championships this week. Their event is the 200 butterfly, which Burston has posted a top-10 time in during this season.
Yu’s time in the Eastern Michigan Invitational earlier this season is the league’s third-best mark, which is only one second behind the fastest time of the year in the MAC.
The Falcon relay teams will also be a contender for medals. At the EMU Invitational, BG posted the third-best time of the year in the 200 freestyle relay event.
The team also posted similar times in dual meets against Toledo and Ohio earlier this year.
