2024 HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 14 – Saturday, February 17, 2024
- IU Natatorium (IUPUI), Indianapolis, IN
- Defending Champions:
- Women: Oakland (10x)
- Men: Oakland (10x)
- Live Results (MeetMobile)
- Live Video (ESPN+)
- Championship Central
- Fan Guide
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Day 3 Recap
- FULL MEET RESULTS
FINAL TEAM SCORES
MEN
- Oakland – 876.5
- IUPUI – 808
- Cleveland State – 525
- Youngstown State – 417
- Milwaukee – 365
- Green Bay – 240.5
WOMEN
- Oakland – 909.5
- Milwaukee – 690.5
- IUPUI – 527.5
- Youngstown State – 474
- Cleveland State – 463.5
- Green Bay – 184
2024 HL CHAMPS AWARDS
- Women’s Freshman of the Year – Clarissa Bezuidenhout, Oakland
- Men’s Freshman of the Year – Nathan Rariden, IUPUI
- Women’s Diver of the Meet – Alaina Heyde, IUPUI
- Men’s Diver of the Meet – Sebastian Otero, IUPUI
- Women’s Swimmer of the Meet – Emmaleigh Zietlow, IUPUI
- Men’s Swimmer of the Meet – Spencer Jyawook, IUPUI
- Women’s Diving Coach of the Year – Larry Albright, Oakland
- Men’s Diving Coach of the Year – Eric Barnes, IUPUI
- Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year – Kyle Clements, Milwaukee
- Men’s Swimming Coaches of the Year – Hannah Burandt, Cleveland State and Damion Dennis, IUPUI
The 2024 Horizon League Championship has come to an end, seeing the Oakland Golden Grizzlies extend their men’s and women’s win streaks to 11 straight years. While Oakland won the women’s meet decisively and managed to pull away to a reasonably comfortable margin in the men’s scoring, it was IUPUI that was the big winner in terms of the meet awards.
The Jags swept the Swimmer of the Year Awards, seeing junior Emmaleigh Zietlow win the women’s award thanks to her wins in the women’s 200 free, 500 free, and 1650 free. Senior Spencer Jyawook took home the Men’s Swimmer of the Year honors thanks to his wins in the men’s 50 free and 100 fly. IUPUI also swept the Diver of the Year awards, as Alaina Heyde won the women’s award and Sebastian Otero took home the men’s award. Nathan Rariden also took home the Men’s Freshman of the Year award for the Jags. For their athletes’ efforts, Eric Barnes won Men’s Diving Coach of the Year, while Damion Dennis earned co-Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year honors alongside Cleveland State’s Hannah Burandt.
En route to winning Women’s Swimmer of the Year, Emmaleigh Zietlow ripped a new Horizon League record in the women’s 1650 free, winning the event in 16:25.95. In addition to the conference record, Zietlow’s performance also marks a new IUPUI program record. On top of that, it was a truly dominant performance, as Zietlow won by a whopping 30 seconds. For those distance swimming fans out there, Zietlow swam the race incredibly well, splitting 4:58.32 on the first 500 yards, 5:00.35 on the 2nd 500, 5:01.56 on the 3rd 500, then came home in a very speedy 1:25.72 on the final 150.
Youngstown State senior Gavin Webb then picked up a huge win in the men’s 1650 free, popping a 15:09.60 to win the race by nearly 18 seconds. While he was a little off the Horizon League record of 15:02.06, which has stood since 2009, Webb did establish a new Youngstown State program record with his performance. The Penguins showed that they have a heck of a distance program going right now, as fellow senior Christian Taylor came in 2nd with a 15:27.32.
Clarissa Bezuidenhout wrapped up the Women’s Freshman of the Year award when she won the women’s 200 back on Saturday night, swimming a 1:58.89. It was yet another decisive victory, as Bezuidenhout touched 1st by nearly 4 seconds.
Oakland made it a sweep of the 200 backstrokes, as sophomore Harry Nicholson earned a win in the men’s 200 back with a 1:42.64. Nicholson got out to a big early leads thanks to a 23.74 on the 1st 50.
The Golden Grizzlies made it a streak, as senior Ronja Riihinen took the women’s 100 free in 50.41. It was a very tight final, seeing the top 5 finishers all go 50-point-something. In fact, Cleveland State’s Ana Sousa Reis came in 2nd with a 50.73, Milwaukee’s Janelle Schulz took 3rd in 50.74, and Oakland’s Erika Pietra was 4th with a 50.75.
Christian Bart kept the win streak going for Oakland, claiming the men’s 100 free in 43.16. Bart pulled off a rarely-seen feat in college swimming: a 5th-straight conference title in an event. Not only was it the 5th time Bart has won the event at the Horizon League Championships, his 43.16 also marks a career best.
The Oakland streak made it to 5 straight events, as sophomore Bella Gary won the women’s 200 breast in 2:18.64. She was out fast, splitting 1:05.26 on the opening 100.
IUPUI junior Logan Kelly snapped the Oakland win streak, taking the men’s 200 breast in 1:54.39. It was a decent swim for Kelly, who set the Horizon League record last year with a 1:52.86. Kelly is currently 27th in the NCAA this season with the performance. That means in order to qualify for the NCAA Championships again this year, Kelly will likely need to race again at a last chance meet.
Oakland reclaimed the crown in the next event, the women’s 200 fly. Junior Jordyn Shipps clocked a 1:58.58 to win the race, touching as the only swimmer in the field under 2:00. It was a 1-2 punch for the Golden Grizzlies, as fellow junior Ajete Eggers came in 2nd with a 2:00.81.
Oakland then went 1-2-3 in the men’s 200 fly, a charge which was led by junior Auben Nugent, who won the event in 1:45.79. Ian Allen came in 2nd with a 1:47.27, while James Hart clocked a 1:47.99 for 3rd place.
In the lone diving event of the day, IUPUI’s Sebastian Otero sealed up the Men’s Diver of the Year award, winning men’s 3-meter by a huge margin. Otero racked up a final score of 392.30, beating out runner-up Adam Schmehl, also a Jag, by nearly 70 points. Schmehl came in 2nd with a score of 324.20, while teammate Blake Vanderjeugdt took 3rd with a score of 312.65.
Oakland then closed out the women’s meet with a win in the 400 free relay. Jordyn Shipps (50.17), Erika Pietras (50.71), Sam Thiessen (51.03), and Ronja Riihinen (50.12) combined for a 3:22.03, touching the wall 1st by well over 2 seconds.
The official end of the meet came in the men’s 400 free relay, which the Golden Grizzlies won convincingly. Harry Nicholson (43.38), Micah Scheffer (43.76), Jack Wike (43.49), and Christian Bart (42.90) teamed up for a 2:53.53, coming in as the only team in the field under 2:57. The quartet was just under a second off the Horizon League record mark of 2:52.70, which Oakland set at last year’s championship with a team that also featured Bart.
It is hard to imagine how other head coaches, that have already lived through their first year as a head coach, couldn’t acknowledge what they just witnessed in the Horizon Swim Championships, especially on the men’s side. Just another situation of how when our egos take over, we will choose to do the wrong thing. It is unfortunate, but team championships truly award all the members of the team that dedicated themselves to each other to make it a special year. Congratulations to the Men and Women of the Oakland University Swimming & Diving Team!
It is hard to imagine how other head coaches, that have already lived through their first year as a head coach, couldn’t acknowledge what they just witnessed in the Horizon Swim Championships, especially on the men’s side. Just another situation of how when our egos take over, we will choose to do the wrong thing. It is unfortunate, but team championships truly award all the members of the team that dedicated themselves to each other to make it a special year. Congratulations to all of the Men and Women of the Oakland University Swimming & Diving Team!
Absolute joke that Mitch Alters wasn’t awarded the Mens Coach of the Season. Not only was it his first year, the mens team was predicted to LOSE the championship by over 50 points. Embarrassing show it sportsmanship from the rest of the coaches
Absolute joke is right, Mitch Alters and their FIVE other coaches are “pulling it” together, while IUPUI suffered a coaching loss at the beginning of the season. That left IUPUI ONE person to coach, manage, and inspire an entire men’s and women’s team. I think he stepped up to the plate alright, and I think the rest of the conference recognized that.
Coach of the Year clearly goes to Mitch from Oakland. At the NCAA Division 1 level we should not be giving out “participation awards”. Oakland won both women’s and men’s on Mitch’s first year. How do coaches make sense of NOT voting him as coach of the year? Keep politics out. Use a point system or rubric to determine these awards. This year was a joke.
If Coach of the Year goes to the winning team’s coach every year…then does the award provide value?
Forgot that the men’s team was projected to lose in preseason polls? Overcame 100pt diving deficit. Alters built that team deeeeeep
Do you think winning happens by chance?
It’s true the coach shouldn’t get the award just because they are for the winning team, but I think its still clear Mitch deserved to win on the men’s side. I mean, the team was ranked second at the beginning of the season and they ended up taking the meet pretty comfortably.
Also, the award is for SWIMMING coach of the year, and the only reason IUPUI was even in the meet to begin with is because they had 105 unanswered points in diving. Oakland was by far the better swim team. I don’t think any of their swimmers had less than 20 points, and even their exhibition swimmers would have made A finals. Saturday prelims alone should have… Read more »
Same goes for swimmer of the meet, should be a performance/point based system
Coaches are bad at voting haha. How do you vote for CSU and IUPUI when their results were basically the exact same as last year, if anything Oakland men did better than expected. Milwaukee for the women makes sense
Also, under a new HC & didn’t bring any divers? 🤷
Is the award for best coach or winning coach? Mitch and his men did great but the idea that he did it without divers is crazy. He has 3 divers but only 1 of them are academically available. That’s not overcoming anything that is putting yourself in a bad position to begin with. To me it’s seems like the coaches were rewarding IU for losing half their roster due to the IU/Pu Split and still pushing Oakland at the end. Oakland changes coaches and still same result. Are Pete and Mitch equally good coaches or could you plug anyone in there and got the same outcome?