Michigan Men
The No. 6-ranked University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team won 11 of 16 events to earn a clean sweep over No. 15 Ohio State (187-111), Buffalo (229-76) and West Virginia (220-77) on Saturday (Jan. 30) inside the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Senior Anders Lie Nielsen and sophomore Paul Powers each won two events on the afternoon for the Wolverines, who finished 1-2 in seven races and won both relays.
Michigan dominated the freestyles, with Powers winning the 50-yard freestyle (19.86) and 100-yard freestyle (43.84), while Nielsen claimed the 200-yard freestyle (1:35.68) and 500-yard freestyle (4:24.13). Sophomore PJ Ransford led the way in the 1,000-yard freestyle, establishing a new pool record (9:08.47) in his victory. The Wolverines also took second in each of those events: junior Jason Chen in the 50-yard freestyle (20.26), Nielsen in the 100-yard freestyle (44.28), sophomore Tristan Sanders in the 200-yard freestyle (1:38.31), Ransford in the 500-yard freestyle (4:25.02) and sophomore Ian Rainey in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:14.36).
Senior Dylan Bosch and junior Chris Klein each won an individual event and took second in two others. Bosch won the 200-yard butterfly (1:44.25) and pulled a difficult double by swimming both the 100-yard butterfly (47.62) and 200-yard individual medley (1:47.18). Klein won the 200-yard breaststroke (1:59.75) and finished second in both the 100-yard breaststroke (54.71) and 200-yard IM (1:49.87). Sophomore Evan White took second to Bosch in the 200-yard butterfly (1:45.84).
Sophomore Aaron Whitaker won the 100-yard backstroke (47.69), followed by graduate student Kyle Dudzinski in second (48.74). U-M went 1-2-3 in the 200-yard backstroke with Sanders (1:45.48), senior/junior Luke Papendick (1:46.78) and freshman Jordan Ross (1:46.81).
The Wolverines also touched the wall first on both relays. Whitaker, Klein, fifth-year senior Jeremy Raisky and Powers combined to win the 200-yard medley relay (1:27.09) -- which included a closing 19.25 split from Powers -- while the foursome of Powers, Chen, White and Nielsen won the 400-yard freestyle relay (2:56.78).
In the diving well, freshman Collin DeShaw finished seventh on platform (221.75) and 10th on three-meter (260.20).
The Wolverines have a home competition next Saturday (Feb. 6) for the first time in over three months, as the men's and women's teams face in-state foe Michigan State. The meet will begin at noon inside Canham Natatorium. Prior to the start of the meet, Michigan's men's and women's senior classes will be honored on deck in a special ceremony.
Michigan Women
With less than three weeks until the Big Ten Championships, the No. 6-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team continued its strong push, toppling No. 25 Ohio State, 162-138, on Saturday (Jan. 30) inside the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, the program's first victory over the Buckeyes in Columbus in eight years. The Wolverines also swam against West Virginia, though that was not scored.
The meet marked the collegiate debut of Yirong Bi, the Chinese international who joined the team at semester. Bi, who goes by Rose, impressed in her first races, winning the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:42.32) and taking second in both the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.98) and 500-yard freestyle (4:45.40). Fellow freshman Siobhán Haughey continued her year-long dominance, winning the 100-yard freestyle (48.58), 200-yard freestyle (1:46.74) and 200-yard IM (1:58.91).
But the freshmen weren't the only ones to shine on Saturday. Sophomore Clara Smiddy threw down a couple pretty impressive in-season times to win the 100-yard backstroke (53.89) and 200-yard backstroke (1:55.38), while classmate Emily Kopas won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.24) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:14.20). Sophomore Gillian Ryan showed her range of speed across the freestyle events, winning the 500-yard freestyle (4:44.92), taking third in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:58.69) and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.60).
The Wolverines scored valuable points thanks to their depth. In an intriguing match-up of two of the Big Ten's top sprinters, senior captain Ali DeLoof went stroke-for-stroke with Ohio State's Liz Li, finishing second (22.46). She was also third in the 100-yard freestyle (49.36). Senior Zoe Mattingly led a 2-3-4-5 finish of Wolverines in the 100-yard butterfly (55.35), as she was followed on the wall by Smiddy (55.51), freshman Astrid Swensen (55.77) and sophomore Samantha Yeo (56.19). Swensen also took second in the 200-yard butterfly (2:00.66).
Michigan also took second in both relays. The foursome of A. DeLoof, Kopas, Mattingly and Haughey finished second in the 200-yard medley relay (1:39.99), while freshman Catie DeLoof, Smiddy, A. DeLoof and freshman Becca Postoll were second in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:20.58).
The divers had a strong meet, with four student-athletes earning top-five finishes. U-M went 2-3-4 on platform, led by Nicole Honey (228.65). She was followed by junior Allie Murphy (228.55) and senior Sarah Kamstra (225.50). On three-meter, Murphy was second (310.45), followed by Kamstra in fourth (286.20) and junior Keegan McCaffrey in fifth (273.20).
The Wolverines have a home competition next Saturday (Feb. 6) for the first time in over three months, as the men's and women's teams face in-state foe Michigan State. The meet will begin at noon inside Canham Natatorium. Prior to the start of the meet, Michigan's men's and women's senior classes will be honored on deck in a special ceremony.
Ohio State Men
It’s always an important day when Ohio State takes to the pool with its biggest rival, but it was also a big day out of the pool as the Buckeyes honored its six seniors prior to the day’s events. Keeler Callahan, Chris DePietro, Dmitry Dolgov, Peter Lyon, and DJ MacDonald were all honored at Senior Day today. The group, which holds several impressive accolades including Olympic Qualifying times, NCAA appearances, and myriad academic awards, was cheered on by the Buckeye faithful they had swam in front of for four years here.
As a team, the Buckeyes took two of three dual meets against Buffalo, Michigan, and West Virginia.
The opening event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, came down to Ohio State’s top foursome and Michigan’s top foursome, with the Wolverines (1:27.09) edging out Matt McHugh, MacDonald, Ching Lim, and Mossimo Chavez (1:27.76). In the 1000 freestyle it was another tight finish near the top, with Brayden Seal (9:14.79) finishing in third place just behind Michigan’s Ian Rainey (9:14.36). Wolverine PJ Ransford outpaced the competition by a significant margin, setting a new pool record with his time of 9:08.47.
The 200 freestyle followed, where Ohio State’s top finishers were Steffen Hillmer (1:38.64) and Callahan (1:40.92). The 100 backstroke was next, and sophomore Mark Belanger (49.09) was able to place fourth for the Scarlet and Gray.
One of the best finishes on the men’s side came in the 100 breaststroke. MacDonald (54.67) and Michigan’s Chris Klein (54.71) were neck and neck with Klein having the early advantage, but MacDonald surged past him during the final stretch (his split of 14.63 well ahead of Klein’s 15.03) to nab that top spot. The Buckeye faithful in the stands at McCorkle let him hear it as well, erupting when the results were shown on the video board.
In the final two events before the first break, Ohio State was able to place a few swimmers in the top-four. Lim (1:46.00) and Lyon (1:49.39) were third and fourth, respectively, in the 200 butterfly and Kevin Musterait (20.35) was the third place swimmer in the 50 freestyle. Lim’s 200 fly time put him under the NCAA provisional cut line in that event.
Joining him and MacDonald in posting an NCAA B time would be McHugh in the 100 freestyle. His time of 43.86 was just barely beaten by Michigan’s Paul Powers (43.84), but was well under the NCAA’s provisional standard. Wolverines finished 1-3 in the 200 backstroke, with Gus Whiteman (1:47.75) and Andrew Appleby (1:48.42) rounding out the top five.
Klein and MacDonald battled again, this time atop the 200 breaststroke. Unfortunately, it was the Wolverine (1:59.75) who came out on top this time, with MacDonald posting a time of 2:00.49 to take second. Fellow senior and teammate Dmitry Dolgov was right behind him at 2:01.00, edging out a swimmer from West Virginia for third place. The 500 freestyle followed, where Seal (4:30.04) and Mitrovic (4:31.07) were the top finishers for Ohio State, rounding out the top-five of the event.
Another exciting finish came in the 100 butterfly when McHugh and Michigan’s Dylan Bosch duked it out for the top spot. McHugh (47.55) outdueled his Wolverine counterpart for his first individual first place finish on the day, but the fourth of the weekend for the junior. That was followed up by yet another race that brought the crowd to its feet: the 200 IM. Lim (1:46.99) finished with a 24.99 in the final leg, fast enough to overtake the swimmer he ended up beating out for the top spot. The relay team of Vlad Komarov, Thomas Trace, Jack DiSalle, and Justin Dunn placed fifth in the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, with a time of 3:03.46.
Ohio State still has one dual meet left on its schedule which will take place next Friday, Feb. 5. Wright State will be coming to McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion to face the Buckeyes and the meet is scheduled to start at 5 pm.
Ohio State Women
A day after soundly defeating Kentucky, Ohio State split its dual meets with Michigan and West Virginia on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes won seven events on the day, including both relays.
The 200 medley relay kicked off the day’s events, and in exhilarating fashion. Ohio State’s foursome of Camey Rabold, Rachael Dzierzak, Liz Li, and Annie Jongekrijg overtook the top relay team from Michigan to win the first event of the day. The Buckeyes’ time of 1:39.50 narrowly edged out their rival’s time of 1:39.99; a big reason for that was Li’s 22.56 split being nearly two seconds faster than her Wolverine counterpart (24.43), which helped OSU make up ground that it would not relinquish.
Lindsey Clary followed that up with a second place finish in the 1000 freestyle (9:44.39), breaking her season-best from earlier this season by two seconds, moving her up to fifth among fastest 1000 free times in the nation this year. In the 200 freestyle, Ohio State’s top finisher was Christi DiPaolo with a mark of 1:49.03.
Ohio State got a couple swimmers in the top-four of the 100 backstroke: Zulal Zeren (55.78) placed third and Rabold (55.92) finished fourth for the Buckeyes. OSU gained some ground in the 100 breaststroke, putting three swimmers in the top-four: Amy Bopp (1:02.58), Dzierzak (1:03.20), and Taylor Vargo (1:03.48). The event that followed, the 200 butterfly, came down to two swimmers at the top in Meg Bailey and Michigan’s Astrid Swensen, with Bailey (2:00.39) outpacing her opponent (2:00.66). Amanda McNulty (2:03.15) also won a close battle for third place in that race.
Li sent Ohio State into the break on top, winning the 50 freestyle with a mark of 22.18. Teammates Jongekrijg (23.03) and Macie McNichols (23.27) joined her in the top-four, really helping the Buckeyes gain some ground.
A familiar face was the top Ohio State finisher in the 100 freestyle; Li (49.31) finished second and posted an NCAA provisional time in the process. Zeren would post an NCAA B time for herself in the very next event, the 200 backstroke, her time of 1:59.01 a few seconds behind the winner’s mark of 1:55.38. Adding to the day’s list of close finishes was the 200 breaststroke, where Bopp and Michigan’s Emily Kopas were neck and neck until the very last instant when Kopas (2:14.20) squeaked by Bopp (2:14.46), who joined her other teammates with an NCAA B time.
In the 500 freestyle, Ohio State was able to put four swimmers in the top-six, led by Clary (4:46.65) and Katy Luchansky (4:55.75) and Bailey followed that up with a first place finish in the 100 butterfly (55.01), her second top finish of the afternoon. The Merewether, Australia native was the fastest Ohio State swimmer in her next event as well, the 200 IM; Bailey’s 2:01.59 was good enough for second place.
Closing out the day’s events was the 400 freestyle relay, which was won by the Ohio State relay team of Jongekrijg, Li, Dzierzak, and McNichols (3:20.01) and ended the meet as it began: with a close finish in a relay event.
“Overall, it was a very solid weekend of racing,” said head coach Bill Dorenkott. “We had a number of season best times across the board and raced tough over two days.”
That tough racing proved invaluable in a few instances over the course of the weekend, notably in the relay events, of which Dorenkott was particularly impressed.
“Our relays were competitive which will lead to good things at the Big Ten’s and NCAA’s. It was great to see us take all four relays over the weekend.”
As the schedule inches closer to the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships, he sees something in his group of swimmers that could mean some very big things are ahead in the coming weeks.
“We are getting closer to becoming an uncommon team,” Dorenkott said. “There is a sincere caring and connection in this group that showed in our spirit and racing."
The Buckeyes still have one dual meet left on their schedule: a Friday evening affair with Wright State on Feb. 5. That meet will also serve as the team’s Senior Day where the squad’s four seniors- Dzierzak, Jongekrijg, Luchansky, and Rabold- will be honored prior to the meet beginning.
West Virginia
The West Virginia University women’s swimming and diving team suffered a 153-90 setback to Ohio State, while the men’s team suffered losses to Michigan, Buffalo and Ohio State on Saturday at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on the campus of OSU in Columbus, Ohio.
The men suffered a tough loss to the Bulls, 176-136, while suffering a 220-77 setback to the Wolverines and a 241-58 loss to the Buckeyes.
“Today I put the teams in a difficult position, and I feel that they responded to it well,” said coach Vic Riggs. “For the women, we took a different approach and raced one or two events to take the mental approach of preparing for those events for Big 12’s. The men just weren’t as sharp as they needed to be in order to beat Buffalo. However, both teams competed very hard. We had several people swim faster than last night. Today’s situation will definitely help us prepare for the third day of the Big 12’s, and that was the goal.”
Senior Andrew Marsh led the Mountaineers with a third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, touching the wall in 48.86In the men’s 200 IM, junior Nate Carr posted a fourth-place finish with a time of 1:49.95.
Senior Max Spencer placed fourth in the men’s 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:01.18, improving on his time from Friday’s meet against Villanova by .43.
Spencer touched the wall in 56.10 to place sixth in the 100 breaststroke. The men’s 400 freestyle relay team included Marsh, senior Ross Glegg, freshman Merwane Elmerini and Carr swam to a sixth-place finish to touch the wall in 3:03.52.
In the diving competition, the WVU men’s squad posted a trio of top-five finishes, as Austin Smith finished fourth on the 1-meter with a score of 251.20. Sophomore Michael Proietto placed fifth (245.90) and senior Alex Obendorf grabbed sixth (245.05).
Obendorf also placed fifth on the 3-meter board with a score of 281.70, while Proietto placed sixth with a score of 279.30.
On the women’s side, the Mountaineers claimed first-and second-place finishes in the women’s 200 breaststroke. Freshman Emma Harris took the victory, touching the wall in 2:22.04, and sophomore Loren Williams came in second (2:27.82).
Junior Emma Skelley placed fourth, in the women’s 200 freestyle, touching the wall in 1:57.16 Senior Kelsey Frantz also competed in the event and touched the wall sixth with a time of 1:58.58.
The Mountaineers’ 200-yard medley relay team of seniors Courtney Miller and Jaimee Gillmore, sophomore Amelie Currat and Harris picked up a sixth-place finish with a time of 1:47.56.
Gillmore and Currat were joined by freshman Sydnee Karam and sophomore Mia Fiorenzi in the 400 freestyle relay, touching the wall in 3:36.49 for sixth place.
Next up, the West Virginia divers will compete at the James Madison Diving Invite on Saturday Feb. 6, at 9 a.m. The Mountaineers then have three weeks off from competition before they compete for the Big 12 title at the 2016 Big 12 Championship, Feb. 24-27, in Austin Texas.
