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RedHawks hope to stay red-hot on senior day

By Ben Vandertill, For The Miami Student

The Miami University women's swimming and diving team will host University of Toledo Saturday for the RedHawks' senior day.

Miami is looking to keep its January winning streak alive, as it 3-0 in the month. With only two meets left before the Mid-American Conference Championships, the 'Hawks hope to keep the momentum up, coming off big wins over the University at Buffalo (182.5-117.5) and Ball State University (186-111).

The RedHawks will honor their seven seniors; Katie Bootsma, Courtney Collett, Emma Craig, Caitlin Fujan, Annie Marquiss, Stephanie Pearce and Whitney Mitchell. Head Coach Mark Davis has confidence the little things will begin to click for the RedHawks.

"We take January and February to get the momentum going for Conference meet," Davis said. "We're trying to get the women swimming a bit faster than they have been swimming in season. Starting to fine-tune those races. We're getting into a lot of race-specific stuff in practice and being able to apply it in the meets has been big."

With the conference meet coming up soon, the selection for who is going to be on the conference team is also on the horizon.

"Looking to see who is going to step up and who is going to step up for us going forward," Davis said. "We have to pick our conference team in another week or so."

However, the main focus is on the Rockets.

The Rockets have a 2-5 duel meet record thus far, but have a lot to build on going into the final weeks of the regular season. They were the second place finisher (1554 points) at the Miami Invitational, falling to only the RedHawks (2409 points).

"Toledo is a good team," Davis said. "They have improved a lot from last year. We're expecting a really good meet with them."

Sophomore standout Elise Campbell is coming off a big meet against Ball State, swimming as a part of the winning 200 medley relay team. Campbell looks forward to helping the seniors have a big day for their last home meet.

"It's the senior meet, so we're focused on getting the seniors really pumped up," Campbell said. "Also, Toledo is in our conference so its another chance for us to show the rest of the MAC what we can do, and what were prepared to do at MACs. A big focus for us is keeping our energy level up through the entire season. We want to go into MACs and senior meet with a lot of energy and keep that energy up."

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The meet is set to start 1 p.m. Saturday in the Nixon Aquatic Center.