Ohio State Men
It was another Friday, another dual meet victory for the Ohio State men’s swimming and diving teams. The Buckeyes defeated Denison University 174-112, continuing their strong start to the season.
Ohio State’s 400 medley relay team of Andrew Appelby, D.J. MacDonald, Matt McHugh, and Steffen Hillmer (3:19.66) opened the meet up with a victory, Jovan Mitrovic followed up with another top finish in the 1000 freestyle (9:23.57). Hillmer continued his winning ways by taking the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:39.76.
Appleby (50.52) posted his second first-place finish of the evening in the 100 backstroke, narrowly edging out fellow Buckeye Thomas Trace (50.56). Dustin Tynes’ performance in the 100 breaststroke (57.10) earned him top honors and Peter Lyon continued Ohio State’s stellar meet by winning the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:52.45. In the 50 freestyle, McHugh (20.47) and Mossimo Chavez (20.80) both had good performances with the freshman narrowly being bested by his elder teammate. Diving-wise, Colin Zeng led the Buckeyes to a first-place finish in the three-meter dive with a score of 440.63. All five Ohio State divers finished in the top five.
Ching Lim’s 45.73 in the 100 freestyle was good enough for first place, extending the Buckeye lead even further. Gus Whiteman swam a 1:50.59 in the 200 backstroke, giving Ohio State it’s final official first place finish of the meet after it elected to not score any swimmers for the remainder of the competition.
That didn’t stop the Buckeyes from posting impressive times. In the 200 breaststroke, MacDonald recorded a time of 2:03.09, and he was followed up by Brayden Seal’s 4:28.73 in the 500 freestyle. McHugh’s 48.28 in the 100 butterfly led all swimmers in the final event before the second break. Zeng proceeded to win the one-meter diving event (415.20) in another Buckeye diving rout.
Lim (1:51.12) in the 200 IM and the relay team of Trace, McHugh, Hillmer, and Chavez (1:22.59) in the 200 freestyle relay closed out the event’s top times for Ohio State in its 174-112 victory.
The Buckeyes will have a busy week next week, starting with a dual meet against Cleveland State and following that up with competitions against Miami (OH) and Eastern Michigan).
Ohio State Women
Ohio State won its third home meet of the season on Friday, defeating Denison University 210.5-85.5
The Buckeyes got things started with a win in the 400 medley relay. Liz Li, Brookley Garry, Meg Bailey, and Emily Albrecht earned a time of 3:54.23, beating out another Scarlet and Gray foursome by just .23 seconds. In the 1000 freestyle, Alex Wittman’s time of 10:14.43 was enough to outpace Denison’s Taylor Johns (10:15.26) and earn herself a first-place finish, the first of the season for her. Bailey took the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:52.06, preceding Elizabeth Auckley’s narrow victory in the 100 backstroke. The sophomore’s time of 58.29 was just enough to beat Denison’s Ashley Yearwood (58.57) and keep Ohio State well out in front.
Taylor Vargo took first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.31, besting Denison’s Marissa Bednarek (1:04.65) by a small margin. Lindsey Clary then won the 200 butterfly with her time of 2:03.78.
What followed was the closest race of the meet, and nothing did (or could) beat it. Cheyenne Meek and Denison’s Carolyn Kane both recorded times of 24.05 in the 50 freestyle, tying for first place and earning each team 6.5 points for the event. Hannah Thek then continued her strong diving season by winning the three-meter event with a score of 348.00.
Coming back from the break, Katy Luchansky won the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.23 and Mikayla Murphy took first in the 200 backstroke (2:06.39). Vargo claimed her second event victory of the meet and a breaststroke sweep, winning the 200 yarder with her time of 2:19.83. In the 500 freestyle, Cara Norris (4:59.32) took the top spot before Li outswam everyone in the 100 butterfly (54.87).
Taylor Pamplin’s score of 299.78 in the one-meter dive just beat out Thek’s 297.75 in an Ohio State diving sweep. In the final two swimming events of the evening, Zulal Zeren won the 200 IM with her time of 2:07.01 and the relay team of Ariana Bullard, Mario Coy, Rachael Dzierzak, and Li (1:35.29) ended Ohio State’s day with another victory. When it was all said and done, the Scarlet and Gray left with a 210.5-85.5 win.
The Buckeyes will have a busy week next week, starting with a dual meet against Cleveland State and following that up with competitions against Miami (OH) and Eastern Michigan).
