COLUMBUS, Ohio – This fall, 14 new members will be enshrined in the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame, with 12 former student-athletes and two coaches among the honorees. The class will be inducted Sept. 18 at a dinner and introduced to the public at halftime of the Ohio State home football game against Northern Illinois Sept. 19.
The 2015 class includes Tim Anderson (football), Justin Cook (men’s soccer), Terence Dials (men’s basketball), Lara Dickenmann (women’s soccer), Natalia Diea (women’s diving), Annabelle Fago (rowing), Joey Galloway (football), Therese Hession (women’s golf coach), J Jaggers (wrestling), Perry Martter (wrestling), Teresa Meyers (pistol), Dan Seimetz (baseball), Jim Tressel (football coach) and Paul Tilley (men’s hockey).
The hall of fame was created in 1977 and has inducted 285 men through 2014. Anderson and Galloway will bring the total football players in the hall to 115. Cook will be the third men’s soccer player inducted and Dials will be the 37th men’s basketball player enshrined. Jaggers and Martter will bring the total wrestlers enshrined to 16, Seimetz is the 21st baseball player headed to the hall of fame and Tilley will be the fifth men’s hockey Buckeye to join the hall, while Tressel will be the 13th coach (sixth football coach) to be inducted.
Women were first inducted into the hall in 1993, with 111 outstanding student-athletes, coaches and administrators enshrined through 2014. Diea and Fago give women’s diving and rowing six inductees each, while Meyers will be the fourth member of the pistol team to be enshrined and Dickenmann the third women’s soccer player honored. Hession is the seventh coach of a Buckeye women’s program to earn a spot.
Natalia Diea
Women’s Diving, 2001-2003
Natalia Diea was Ohio State’s first platform diving champion, capturing the national title at the 2003 NCAA Championships.
Diea, a native of Austin, Texas, joined the Buckeyes after spending two seasons with the Texas Longhorns. She arrived on the Ohio State campus as a two-time Big 12 diving champion and an All-America honoree and was welcomed into the Ohio State women’s swimming and diving program prior to the start of the 2000-01 season.
In her first season with the Buckeyes, she made headlines by winning the platform diving event at the 2001 Big Ten Championships. Named First Team All-Big Ten for her efforts at the conference showcase, Diea went on to compete at the NCAA championships, where she received First Team All-America recognition for a sixth-place showing on the platform dive. Also a threat on the 3-meter springboard, Diea received Honorable Mention All-America honors in the event.
The accumulation of Diea’s efforts came to fruition during her senior season when she scored a 476.65 on the platform dive at the 2003 NCAA Championships, becoming the first Buckeye to win an NCAA swimming or diving national title since 1988. Diea took the event by a significant margin, winning by 19.75 points. The achievement also earned her First Team All-America status.
Swimming news courtesy of Ohio State Athletics.