With Nebraska’s flight cancelled due to the snow, ice and cold hitting the midwest, the scheduled women’s triangular turned into a dual meet between Ohio State and Michigan. The Big Ten rivals put up an entertaining battle Friday night, with the Wolverine women emerging with a 4 point lead with one day of racing yet to go.
The Buckeye men took on West Virginia, coming out with a convincing 177-99 win.
Women’s Meet – Day 1
Michigan won the opening race, the 400 medley relay, in runaway fashion. Ali DeLoof, Angie Chokran, Zoe Mattingly and Julia Fiks Salem went 3:41.71, getting a big 53.75 leadoff from DeLoof and a 1:01.55 breaststroke from Chokran.
Those two each won individual races for the Wolverines. DeLoof went 54.02 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 back and Chokran won the 100 breast in 1:02.75.
Courtney Beidler also led a 1-2 finish for Michigan in the 200 fly, going 2:00.74.
Ohio State started out hot, sweeping the top two spots in the 1000 free and the top three in the 200 free. Kelly Ann Baird was the 1000 winner in 9:53.43 and Alex Norris won the 200 free with a quick 1:47.44.
Annie Jongekrijg touched out teammate Michelle Williams by a hundredth to win the 50 free in 23.15. The two combined with Rachael Dzierzak and Aliena Schmidke to win the 200 free relay at the close of night one, pulling back within 4 points of Michigan at the meet’s halfway point. That relay team went 1:32.30 to nip Michigan’s 1:32.56. Dzierzak was 22.9 on her split and Williams led off in 23.1, but the best split of the field was Michigan’s Ali DeLoof, who went 22.45 in hot pursuit of Schmidtke on the anchor leg.
Michigan also got wins from Marni Oldershaw (200 IM, 2:00.37) and Carey Chen (3-meter diving, 300.08), and currently leads 95-91.
Men’s Meet
Save for a pair of Bryce Bohman backstroke wins for West Virginia, this meet was about as lopsided as they come. Ohio State recorded five 1-2-3 finishes and six more 1-2’s to roll over the visiting Mountaineers.
Steffen Hillmer won the 200 and 500 frees with ease. He led a 1-2 punch in the 200 while going 1:38.71 and followed that up by going 4:30.71 in the 500, a race OSU swept the top three spots in. Matt McHugh won the 50 free (20.62) and 100 fly (48.18), and Stephen Ettienne swept the diving events, scoring 382.20 on 3-meter and 392.40 on 1-meter.
The Buckeyes went 1-2-3 in both breaststroke races, led by DJ MacDonald (55.67) in the 100 and Andrew Braun (2:02.26) in the 200. The 200 fly was another Buckeye sweep, with David Morgan leading the way in 1:51.30, a touchout win over teammate Tamas Gercsak.
West Virginia did have a bright spot, though, and it was backstroker Bryce Bohman. Bohman went 48.30 to beat out OSU’s Steven Zimmerman by three tenths in the 100 back, then came back to blow away the 200 back field in 1:47.76. The Mountaineers did win the final two events as the Buckeyes backed off when the meet was well in hand. Nate Carr went 1:52.17 for the 200 IM win, and then the team of Andrew Marsh, Julien Vialette, Bohman and Tim Squires went 3:02.82 to win the 400 free relay.
Other Buckeye winners were Josh Fleagle in the 100 free (44.72), Joey Long in the 1000 free (9:33.16) and the 200 medley relay team of Garrett Trebilcock, Keanu Stevenson, Tim Phillips and Fleagle.
The Buckeyes will hope to carry momentum from this 177-99 win into tomorrow’s showdown with the defending NCAA Champion Michigan Wolverines in a Big Ten rivalry matchup.