Ohio State Sweeps Cincinnati

The 11th-ranked Ohio State men’s swimming team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 142-112 win over Cincinnati Friday at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Junior Mark Neiman and sophomore Philip Seleskie won two individual races apiece to lead the Buckeyes.

“I was really happy for Philip and it’s a good sign that he’s getting into race shape,” Ohio State coach Bill Wadley said. “Mark Neiman displayed some real toughness for us by being able to swim both distance races [500-yard and 1000 freestyles, respectively] and he really did a solid job on them.”

Ohio State kicked off the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay. For the second consecutive week, the team of Andrew Elliott, Felipe Travesso, Andrew Bretscher and Joel Elber took first to spark the Buckeyes to an early lead.

A Neiman-Stefan Sigrist-Alex Chen-Ryan Stoneburg 1-2-3-4 sweep in the second event, the 1000 freestyle, extended Ohio State’s lead to a comfortable 33-3 and the team would power toward its second win of the season from that point.

A second 1-2-3-4 Ohio State finish followed in the 200 freestyle with Andrew Olson winning in 1:41.44.

Seleskie and fellow sophomore Andrew Misich went 1-2, respectively, in the 100 backstroke and Travesso and Elliott Keefer led a 1-2-3-4 Ohio State sweep in the 100 breaststroke to increase the lead to 78-15. Travesso has two wins in two tries this season in the 100 breaststroke.

Matthias Sigrist gave the Buckeyes an even 20 consecutive victories to start the season when he touched first in the 200 butterfly in 1:52.70. But the streak ended there as UC standout sprinter Josh Schneider, a 2008 Big East champion and a semifinalist in the event at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials this summer, won in 20.28.

That race was the midway point of the meet with Ohio State holding a 103-28 lead.

Schneider rested through the break and then came right back to, impressively, score a win in the 100 freestyle in 45:52, edging Ohio State’s Elber for the second consecutive race.

Not to be outdone in the wins department, Ohio State’s Seleskie picked up his second win of the evening with a time of 1:51.29 in the 200 backstroke. Seleskie’s win led a top four sweep for the Buckeyes.  

After UC’s Jeremy Peter won the 200 breaststroke, Neiman matched Seleskie with his second individual win with a 4:33.63 time in the 500 freestyle. Quincy Lee’s victory in the 100 butterfly followed in 49.85.

“Lee’s and Andrew Bretscher’s 100 butterfly swims were really good for this point of the season, being under 50 seconds,” Wadley said.

Peter doubled up with a win in the 200 individual medley before the final event of the night, the 200 free relay, was won by the Ohio State team of Elber, Bretscher, Yannick Van Heers and Lincoln Fahrbach.

On the Women's side, The Ohio State women’s swimming team defeated Cincinnati, 146-112, Friday at the McCorkle Aquatic The Pavilion. The win improved the Buckeyes’ record under new coach Bill Dorenkott to 2-0 on the young season.

For the second meet in a row, the 200-yard medley relay team opened the competition with a Buckeye win. Sam Cheverton, Catherine Eitel, Jill Lockhart and Lisa Narum touched first in a time of 1:46.01.

A 1-2-3 Ohio State sweep in the second event of the evening – the 1000 freestyle – extended the Buckeyes’ lead to 29-7 after two events and the team kept the Bearcats in its wake the rest of the evening. Freshman Natalie Nichols won for the second time in her brief career in 10:11.37. She was followed by Haley Mitchell and another freshman, Erin Fawley.

“Considering we trained this morning, Natalie coming back to put up a good win in the 1000 was strong,” Ohio State coach Bill Dorenkott said.

Sam Cheverton kept the wins coming for Ohio State with a winning time of 1:52.20 in the 200 freestyle. Teammates Narum, Sarah Ratica, Farriss Blaskovits and Mary Ann Wiser followed Cheverton for a 19-point event.

“From where we are at in our training, we did alright,” Dorenkott said. “We are trying to get a better gauge on our relays and I felt our detail – starts, turns and breakouts – was solid. We do have to work hard on staying tough all the way through the meet, though, because I felt we faded a bit after a real nice start.”

Lockhart added to her first-place effort in the 200 medley relay with an individual win in the 100 backstroke in a winning time of 58.50. Lockhart also took first in the event in the win over Kenyon last week.

Megan Alexander won her first individual event of the season by winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.69 with Colleen Schweitzer a close second in 1:06.80. Griet Buelens then cruised to a three-second win in the 200 butterfly (2:03.49) before the Bearcats stopped the Buckeyes’ victory streak at six with a win in the 50 freestyle by Ellie de Jong.

At the halfway point of the meet the score was Ohio State 90, Cincinnati 40.

de Jong pulled off a sweet double as she won the 100 freestyle coming out of the break  in 52.05. She led a 1-2-3 sweep in the event for the Bearcats which tightened the score to 93-56.

Lockhart, a U.S. Olympic swimming trials qualifier in the 200 backstroke, captured her specialty with a time of 2:02.87 that was almost five seconds in front of her nearest competitor. The junior from Muncie, Ind., now has five wins this season, including four individual firsts.   

The frosh Eitel added to her relay win by picking up her first collegiate victory in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:22.95. Mitchell then followed with her initial individual win of the season, capturing first in the 500 freestyle in 5:03.35.

“Catherine Eitel’s win was one that I felt stood out today,” Dorenkott said. “She’s a young lady who continues to impress us in the water, plus she is such a positive, upbeat person.”

After de Jong displayed terrific versatility by winning her third event of the night, the 100 butterfly, Nichols took first in a time of 2:13.51 in the 200 individual medley.

The final event of the evening – the 200 free relay – was won by the Ohio State team of Meg Noble, Cheverton, Anita Beck and Narum in 1:37.13.

Ohio State returns to McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on November 14 when the Buckeyes take on Miami University. The co-ed dual meet with the Ohio State and Miami men’s teams, which will feature the debut of the powerful Ohio State diving teams, begins at 5 p.m.