Ohio State picked up a pair of dual meet victories on Friday night against NCAA Division III powerhouse Kenyon.
Ohio State Press Release:
It was another day, another victory for the No. 22-ranked Ohio State women’s swimming and diving teams, with the Scarlet and Gray defeating Kenyon College 207-88 Friday evening at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
The Buckeyes got off to a strong start by winning the first three events of the meet. The relay team of Liz Li, Taylor Vargo, Amanda McNulty, and Annie Jongekrijg placed first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:43.35 won the first event of the day, while Kathleen Cook (10:15.97) and Li (1:51.34) took first in the 1000 free and 200 free, respectively. Li’s time in the 200 free was the fastest by an Ohio State swimmer so far this season.
The 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke followed, and both events featured close finishes. Erin Dunseith’s time of 57.14 narrowly edged teammate Meg Bailey (57.47) in the 100 back, while Rachael Dzierzak (1:05.61) fought off Kenyon’s Katie Kaestner (1:05.64) all the way to the finish in the 100 breaststroke. Up until that point only Buckeyes had finished in the top-two spots for each prior event. Amy Bopp (2:00.48) placed first in the 200 butterfly and Maria Coy (24.04) won the 50 freestyle to give Ohio State a 105-26 lead heading into the first break.
Diving-wise, Hannah Thek had another three-meter diving win for the Buckeyes, this time recording a score of 311.85.
During the break, Dominic, seven, and Avalon, twelve, were introduced as Ohio State’s new Buckeye Buddies and recognized down on the pool deck. The Buckeye Buddies Program provides Ohio State student athletes the opportunity to interact with BuckeyeThon miracle families. This program is devoted to giving athletes the opportunity to interact and build relationships with the kids and their families in a way they may otherwise not be able to do. Additionally, the program gives our miracle kids and their families the opportunity to meet and spend time with athletes whom many look up to. While these athletes may appear as superheroes to the kids, as their relationships progress, the athletes show the miracle kids they are the true heroes.
Both Dominic and Avalon have battled Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Avalon when she was just 17 months old and Dominic was diagnosed in 2013. You would never have guessed that though because of the big smiles on their faces.
Camey Rabold, a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Board, had a chance talk with the team’s new Buckeye Buddies and stand with them as they were being recognized. Buckeye Buddies have a chance to request a certain sport to be involved with, and both Dominic and Avalon requested to be paired up with the swim team.
“It’s really exciting that they wanted to be a part of the swim meet and the swim team,” Rabold said. “They were asking me questions about how meets work and about diving.”
“It’s nice to see young kids get involved with swimming. It’s an up-and-coming sport so it’s awesome to see kids who are interested and who can come out and support us.”
Ohio State continued its winning ways coming out of the break, with Cook (51.83) finishing first in the 100 freestyle and freshman Mikayla Murphy (2:04.08) the swimming the fastest time in the 200 backstroke. More first-place finishers followed: Katie Antal (2:22.91) in the 200 breaststroke, Meg Bailey (4:56.60) in the 500 freestyle, and Elizabeth Auckley (56.60) in the 100 butterfly were all the fastest in their respective events heading into the final break. During that break, Thek won yet another diving event, this time the one-meter with a score of 289.65.
In the final two events of the meet it was more of the same. Zulal Zeren outpaced her competitors in the 200 IM with a time of 2:06.25 and the relay team of Jongekrijg, Emily Albrecht, Christi, and Cara Norris (3:30.39) took first in the 400 freestyle relay.
It was the third victory in three meets for Ohio State this season. The Buckeyes have a quick turnaround, as they are set to travel to West Lafayette, Indiana to face Purdue and Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 pm.
The Ohio State men’s swimming and diving teams took to the pool for the first time this season and had no trouble dispatching its first opponent, Kenyon College, winning Friday’s meet 193-98.
The Buckeyes started off strong with a win in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Matt McHugh, D.J. MacDonald, Mark Belanger, and Mossimo Chavez earned a time of 1:29.62 in the event, with Chavez’s personal time of 20.31 the fastest in the field. Brayden Seal (9:15.82) would follow that up with a win in the 1000 freestyle, who was then proceeded by Steffen Hillmer (1:40.13) and his first-place finish in the 200 freestyle.
The winning ways continued for Ohio State. McHugh once again earned a top finish, this time in the 100 backstroke. His time of 47.77 is one of the ten-fastest in the nation so far this season. Following up that performance was MacDonald (55.71) in the 100 breaststroke and Ching Lim (1:49.57) in the 200 butterfly. Chavez then became the third Buckeye of the day to finish multiple events in first place to that point, winning the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.04 to lead the swimmers into the break.
Colin Zeng won the three-meter diving competition with a score of 428.63, leading the way to an all-Ohio State top-five in that event. When the swimmers returned to the pool after the break, Lim joined his fellow Buckeyes as a multiple event winner, outpacing his opponents in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.01. Freshman Gus Whiteman (1:49.42) then earned his first collegiate first-place finish in the 200 backstroke, and MacDonald (2:03.86) followed up that with yet another individual win, this time in the 200 breaststroke.
The 500 freestyle followed that and was won by Seal, the second time he finished first at the meet, capping a perfect two-for-two day for the sophomore. The 100 butterfly was the last event before the second and final break of the meet, and McHugh (48.13) won that for his third top finish of the evening.
In the one-meter dive that took place during the break, Zeng led the way yet again with a score of 385.35.
The final two events of the meet, the 200 IM and the 400 freestyle relay, were both scored to Kenyon, but the fastest times for Ohio State belonged to Dimitry Dolgov (1:53.91) and the relay team of Lim, McHugh, Vlad Komarov, and Hillmer (3:03.74). When it was all said and done the Buckeyes walked away with a 193-98 victory to start their season.
“Efforts were good all around,” head coach Bill Wadley said of his team’s performance. “The teamwork was good, I think they did a nice job of competing hard. We certainly weren’t fast, in terms of being fast this time of year, but we’ve been working pretty hard.”
“The good news is that our best swimmers are swimming well and they’re being good leaders. We just need to have everyone fill in behind them so we can have everybody swimming at a high level.”
Individually, Wadley gave praise to Seal, McHugh, MacDonald, and Hillmer for their performances on Friday.
Ohio State will hit the pool next on Nov. 6 against Denison at McCorkle.
Kenyon Press Release:
Several first-year members of the Kenyon College Ladies swimming and diving team stood out Friday night as the squad competed against The Ohio State University (NCAA D1) at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The Buckeyes won the overall team event 207-88 but not before the Ladies attained a few high marks in the meet.
Marysol Arce started it for Kenyon. In the third event, the 1000-yard freestyle, the newcomer touched the wall in 10:27.37 which was good for third place.
Later in the evening, Abby Wilson claimed the runner-up spot in the 100-yard freestyle competition. The Westerville native completed the race in 51.93 which was a tenth of a second away from first place.
In the 19th event of the night, Delaney Ambrosen and Abby Chopp came in second and third place, respectively, in the 200-yard backstroke. Ambrosen finished in 2:08.62 while Chopp was right behind her at 2:08.75. Chopp later finished third in the 200-yard individual medley.
The last freshman to attain a solid individual mark was Esraa Abdel Khalik. She came in second place during the 500-yard freestyle race in 5:03.51.
Several upperclassmen for the Ladies also turned in good performances.
A specialist in the breaststroke, senior Katie Kaestner took second place in the 100-yard event as she touched the wall in 1:05.64 which was just .03 seconds away from the top spot. Later in the evening, Kaestner registered another pair of runner-up finishes in the 200-yard IM and the 200-yard breaststroke event.
Rounding out Kenyon’s top individual finishes among upperclassmen were Haley Townsend, Mariah Williamson and Natalie Parker. Townsend took second in the 100-yard butterfly; Williamson finished third in the 500-yard freestyle; and Parker placed fourth in the 200 IM.
Highlighting the Ladies’ best relay finish was the group of Hannah Lobb, Jenner McLeod, Townsend and Wilson. The quartet took second in the 400-yard freestyle relay as they clocked in at 3:33.37. Kenyon also had a third-place spot in the 200 medley relay with Caitlin Foley, Townsend, McLeod and Kaestner competing together.
In diving events, Maria Zarka had a pair of fourth-place spots in the 1- and 3-meter competitions.
Next up for Kenyon is a meet with rival Denison University on November 14 at the James A. Steen Aquatics Center starting at 10:30 a.m.
The defending NCAA Division III champion Kenyon College men’s swimming and diving team competed Friday in its first dual meet of the 2015-16 season. The Lords traveled to McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and took on Division I Ohio State University only to come away with a 193-98 loss to the Buckeyes.
The two teams battled in 16 events and the Buckeyes logged first-place finishes in 14 of them. The Lords’ two event wins occurred in the final races of the night, when Ohio State went into exhibition mode. Junior Ian Reardon won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:54.90 and then Kenyon’s quartet of Joey Duronio, Ryan Funk, Weston Carpenter and Wyatt Semenuk followed up by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:14.65.
Reardon also took a second-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:04.89). Senior Mark Newell was right behind Reardon in both of his individual races. Newell was second in the 200-yard individual medley (1:57.61) and third in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:10.54).
Prior to competing in the final relay of the night, Funk logged third-place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle (21.34) and third in the 100-yard butterfly (52.07). Christian Josephson, another Kenyon senior, finished second, ahead of Funk, in the butterfly (51.66). Sophomore Matt Leenhouts added another third-place finish for the Lords in the 200-yard individual medley (1:59.12).
In the 200-yard backstroke, Kenyon’s Liam Moran and Matthew Cooper took second and third place, respectively. Moran clocked in at 1:57.24 and Cooper at 2:00.21. Two events later, in the 500-yard freestyle, David Perez took the second-place spot (4:42.53) and Arthur Conover claimed third (4:45.45).
The Lords had one other top-three finisher earlier in the meet and that was junior Ambert Sawaya, who took bronze in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:43.50.
Kenyon will return to Division III competition Saturday, November 14 when it hosts rival Denison University in a 10:30 a.m. dual meet.
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