Defending Champion Akron Heads to 2015 MAC Swimming and Diving Championship

February 24 | Women's Swimming & Diving

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AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron swimming and diving team looks to defend its 2014 Mid-American Conference Championship title this week as it travels to Ypsilanti, Mich., for the 2015 MAC Championships on Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 25-28.

Each day, preliminaries will be held at 11 a.m. with finals beginning at 7 p.m. at Eastern Michigan's Jones Natatorium.

Live results for each session can be found here.

At last year's competition, Akron tallied 574 points to notch its first MAC Championship title in program history. Miami (Ohio) followed with 496. Bowling Green (476), Eastern Michigan (469), and Buffalo (446) rounded out the top five.

The Zips had two relay teams, the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay, earn MAC Championship times for the first time in program history last year. Now a junior, Hannah Raspopovich notched Akron's lone individual MAC Championship, coming in the 50 freestyle, also a program first in the event.

Under second-year head coach Brian Peresie, the Zips claimed four dual meet victories as well as clinching first place out of 10 teams in this year's Zippy Invitational and second place out of 10 teams at Cleveland State's Magnus Cup Invitational.

The squad last competed in a double dual meet victory over Xavier (184-88) and Mount Union (185-103) at the Ocasek Natatorium where it won 15-of-16 events.

At the meet, junior diver Alice Hottensmith set a MAC record in the one-meter dive with a score of 356.85, which was also good for an Ocasek Natatorium pool record. She followed that performance with a program-record score of 346.35 in the three-meter dive.

In the swimming events, Akron was led by sophomore Laura Savariau who posted two individual victories and was a part of two first-place relays. Her individual top times came in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:54.29 and the 200 backstroke at 2:04.06 while she participated in the first-place 200 freestyle relay (1:54.29) and 200 medley relay (1:44.11).

In addition to Hottensmith's one-meter dive MAC record this season, sophomore Luka Szynal set a conference record in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:55.04 during the 2014 Zippy Invitational.

Tickets for the MAC Championship can be purchased at the EMU Box Office by phone at (734) 487-2282 or online here. Children (ages five and under) are admitted free, while any students who attend MAC schools are admitted FREE with a valid student ID.

Adult single-session tickets are available for $7 with an all-session ticket available for $25. Tickets for students grades K-12 are $5 for a single session or $15 for all sessions.