Columbus, Ohio— It will be another busy weekend for Ohio State swimming and diving as four visiting schools are set to take on the Buckeyes over the course of Friday and Saturday.
First up is the Kentucky Wildcats, Ohio State’s opponent on Saturday for a dual meet that begins at 5 p.m. On Saturday it will be the Michigan Wolverines, Buffalo Bulls, and West Virginia Mountaineers who come to McCorkle to challenge the Scarlet and Gray.
As always, live results can be found here and updates will be posted on each team’s Twitter account as well.
Parking Information
As always, fans are encouraged to park at the Neil Avenue Garage for both meets this weekend. The cost to part is $5 and the garage is connected to McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
A note for Friday’s meet: Though the meet begins at 5 p.m., Neil Avenue Garage will not be available to spectators until 4 p.m. If you plan on arriving prior to that please plan on parking elsewhere.
Event Schedule
Both of this weekend’s meets will follow a default schedule, which is listed below:
- 400 Medley relay 8. 100 Free
- 1000 Free 9. 200 Back
- 200 Free 10. 200 Breast
- 100 Back 11. 500 Free
- 100 Breast 12. 100 Fly
- 200 Fly BREAK
- 50 Free 13. 200 Medley
BREAK 14. 200 Free Relay
Senior Moment
Saturday will be a special day for the men’s swimming team as it will honor its six seniors prior to competition. D.J. MacDonald, Jovan Mitrovic, Peter Lyon, Keeler Callahan, Chris DePietro, and Dmitry Dolgov will all be recognized on this special day. With swimming slated to start at 1 p.m., senior day activities will begin at approximately 12:40, so make sure to arrive in time to cheer on your senior swimmers!
Hitting The Books
Just today it was announced that both the men’s and women’s teams were named CSCAA Scholar All-America Teams. To achieve this honor, teams must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
The recognition is awarded to colleges and universities in Division I, II, and III as well as NAIA. Of the 547 schools who earned this distinction, the men’s swimming team here at Ohio State had the largest roster of all of them.
Poll Position
In the latest CSCAA polls, both Ohio State squads find themselves in the top-25. On the men’s side, head coach Bill Wadley has his team ranked No. 15 heading into the weekend, and on the women’s side head coach Bill Dorenkott’s group is ranked No. 25.
Last Time Out
Both teams returned to the pool a couple weekends ago to face Big Ten foe Michigan State in their first meet of the new calendar year. Ohio State came away with wins on both sides; the men won 186-101 and women won 182-104 while neither conceded a single event to the Spartans.
There were performances of note all over the pool for the Buckeyes, including one more swimmer with sights set on Rio. During long course time trials on Friday evening, Rachael Dzierzak became the latest swimmer to qualify for 2016 Olympic Trials, posting a qualifying time in the 50 free to punch her ticket to Omaha. Dzierzak is the 39th swimmer, either men or women, to qualify for the Trials as a Buckeye.
As has been the case for much of this year, diver Colin Zeng performed well enough to earn Big Ten Diver of the Week honors. This is the third consecutive meet that he has participated in that ended with him earning that award.
Racing to Rio
Here is the most up-to-date list of swimmers who have qualified for Olympic Trials while donning the Scarlet and Gray:
Women: Katie Antal, Meg Bailey*, Amy Bopp, Lindsey Clary, Kaitlyn Ferrara, Anny Jongekrijg, Liz Li*, Macie McNichols, Amanda McNulty, Cheyenne Meek, Camey Rabold, Taylor Vargo, Zulal Zeren*, Alex Norris (post grad), Sam Cheverton* (post grad), Aliena Schmidtke* (post grad)
Men: Andrew Appleby, Jack Barone, Michael DiSalle (post-grad), Chris DiPietro, Josh Fleagle, Mitchell Gour, Steffen Hillmer*, Elliott Keefer (post-grad), Ching Lim*, Joey Long, D.J. MacDonald, Matt McHugh, Jovan Mitrovic*, Greg Nymberg, Henrique Painhas, Brayden Seal, Brad Shannon, Thomas Trace, Dustin Tynes*, Stefano Vrollik, Gus Whiteman, Steven Zimmerman (post-grad)
*represents another country, ineligible to compete at US Olympic Team Trials. Most will try out for their home Olympic teams.
Swimming news courtesy of Ohio State Swimming & Diving.