Ohio State Only Ahead of Michigan by 13.5 Points: Big Ten Scoring Analysis

So far in the Women’s Big Ten Championships, Ohio State has put on a show, especially in the relays. The Buckeyes are looking to win their third team title in a row.

The Buckeyes have the potential to sweep all of the relays as they have won the 200 and 400 medley relays as well as the 800 freestyle relay so far. Although psych sheets were not released, based on the Swimulator, the Buckeyes have the #2 time in the Big Ten in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays so far this season. Michigan has the top time in both. The Buckeyes won three out of the five relays last year when they won their second team title in a row last year. 

One of the biggest differences between last year and this year is that only 18 swimmers and divers (divers count as half) can score. This is six less than last year as the number was 24 last year. Divers still count as half. Ohio State has done a lot with their depth in the past couple of seasons, but so far, they are still ahead of Michigan by 13.5 points. 

Ohio State’s depth also can be shown by the fact that the top exhibition times in all three of the individual events on Thursday were swum by Ohio State. Alyssa Grace was the top exhibition swimmer in the 500 freestyle as she swam a time of 4:49.30, Aislinn Walsh was the top exhibition swimmer in the 200 IM (2:00.09), and Nyah Funderburke swam the top time of exhibition swimmers in the 50 freestyle (22.67). Both Walsh’s and Funderburke’s swims would have made the C final if they were scoring. 

See the number of swimmers used so far by the top four teams:

This means that Michigan has one additional swimmer (or two divers) compared to Ohio State right now that has the potential to contribute points later in the meet.

Another big difference between last year and this year so far is that Ohio State has been unable to score many points in the diving events this year. Last year, Ohio State scored 158.5 points in diving across all events. Last year they scored 65.5 points in the 1 meter diving, but they scored 0 points on Thursday in the event. That may be a huge difference maker in the end as the Buckeyes have their eyes on the title. 

Through day 2 of last year, Ohio State had scored 526 points and Michigan had only scored 358.5. This year, Ohio State has scored 425 points and Michigan has scored 411.5 through day 2. Ohio State won the total meet by 257.5 points last year, but were already ahead by 167.5 at this point. Ohio State did have a record-setting Big Ten score last year though with 1584 points, but by design, the smaller rosters were going to limit that scoring this year one way or the other.