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Middle distance freestyle and breaststroke specialist Reese Benton has committed to swim at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio for her collegiate career. Benton hails from Georgia, where she swims Dynamo Swim Club and competes for Dunwoody High School. She will head to Ohio in the fall of 2025.
I’m so extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Ohio University!! I want to thank all of my swim coaches that have helped me get to this point and my parents and friends for their support through this process. Lastly, I want to thank Coach Mason for this incredible opportunity! I can’t wait for this next chapter! Go Bobcats!!!
At the GHSA 5A State Championships last month, Benton posted a time of 5:11.55 in the 500 freestyle, which placed her 7th. She also added a 10th place performance in the 200 breaststroke (1:07.74). She ended her short course at the Speedo Southern Premier at the end of February, where she improved her season bests in those events to 5:07.30 and 1:06.64. Her career-best times in these distances are 5:02.99 and 1:05.31, with the 500 time being from about a year ago and the 100 time coming from December 2023.
The 17-year-old’s primary event is arguably the 200 breast, which isn’t contested at the high school level. Her best time of 2:21.06 would have been just 0.15 seconds outside of making the ‘B’ final at the 2025 Mid-American Championships, the conference in which Ohio University competes. Ohio’s highest finisher in the distance was Casi Dibetta, who claimed gold in a best time of 2:10.99. Dibetta swept the breast events by winning the 100 too, clocking 59.81 there.
Top SCY Times:
- 100 Freestyle: 54.03
- 200 Freestyle: 1:53.77
- 500 Freestyle: 5:02.99
- 100 Breaststroke: 1:05.31
- 200 Breaststroke: 2:21.06
The Ohio Bobcats finished 3rd at last year’s Mid-American Conference Championships behind in-state rivals Akron and Miami University.
Besides Benton, other verbal commitments for the program include Tori Wittenberg from New Jersey, Addison Lezinsky from Connecticut, Katie Forbes from Colorado, Emma Schwertfeger from Indiana, Juliette Daigneault from Arizona, and in-staters Katrina Kollin and Lily Baumgartner.
The Bobcats are led by Head Coach Mason Norman, who assumed the role in 2018. Prior to Norman taking over, the roster was thin on local Ohio swimmers. Norman has worked to regrow those local recruiting pipelines, moving the count of Ohio natives from just four the season before he took over to 13, but this class is more of an out-of-state heavy crew than in previous years.
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