Mossimo Chavez of Whitney Young High School and Swift Aquatics will join the Ohio State Buckeyes for the 2015-16 season.
The 2015 runner-up in the 50 free by just one hundredth, Chavez is a pure sprinter. As a senior, he also placed sixth in the 100 free at the IHSA Championships and anchored Whitney Young’s 200 medley relay to a 7th place finish, winning the B final. He split a 19.94 in prelims and then a 19.76 in finals on that medley relay, and was the only swimmer in the competition to split sub-20 on a relay.
Here are his best times in his strongest events, in yards:
50 free – 20.40
100 free – 45.09
200 free – 1:40.85
100 fly – 50.43
While OSU’s top 100 freestyler, Michael DiSalle, has no remaining eligibility with the Buckeyes, they do return NCAA All-American Josh Fleagle for his senior season. OSU is known in the Big Ten for great sprinting, and Chavez will get a year of overlap with Fleagle. Chavez should fit in nicely; his current personal bests would put him 6th and 7th on the Buckeyes’ top times list last season in the 50 and 100 free, respectively.
Chavez is around .5 off of what it took to make the 100 free C final at Big Tens last year and only .2 off of what it took to make the C final in the 50 free last year, so he could potentially find himself competing in finals as a freshman. His relay performances at IHSA state are much more impressive than his individual times, and he could find himself on the Buckeyes’ 200 free relay as soon as next year.
Other members of OSU’s men’s class of 2019 include Justin Dunn, Michael Salazar, Austin Mortimer, Oliver Knabb, and Justin Hove.
