Ohio State Repeats As Big Ten Champions With 1,584 Total Points

2021 BIG TEN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

TEAM SCORES (FINAL)

  1. Ohio State – 1584
  2. Michigan – 1326.5
  3. Indiana – 1066.5
  4. Northwestern – 992
  5. Wisconsin – 749.5
  6. Minnesota – 555
  7. Nebraska – 542.5
  8. Iowa – 424
  9. Purdue – 414
  10. Penn State – 410
  11. Michigan State – 217
  12. Ilinois – 177
  13. Rutgers – 60

The 2021 Big Ten Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships have come to a close in Minnesota, with the Ohio State Buckeyes successfully defending their historic 2020 team title. Placing second were the Michigan Wolverines followed by the Indiana Hoosiers, Northwestern Wildcats, and Wisconsin Badgers to round out the top five teams.

This is now Ohio State’s 7th Big Ten team title in program history, now tied with Minnesota for the 2nd-most team titles in conference history. Michigan still has the most titles in history with 17.

ALL-TIME BIG TEN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

Rank Team Titles
1 Michigan 17
2* Ohio State 7
2* Minnesota 7
3 Indiana 6
5 Penn State 5

Ohio State scored 1,584 points to win the title, which is the highest team score at Big Tens in history. The Buckeyes scored the second-most all-time last year, winning their first team title in 34 years with 1,503.50 points. C-final scoring at the Big Ten Championships did not get added to the program until 2016, which greatly inflated team scoring. The Buckeyes scored more than 100 points in four events across the entire meet: 50 free (150), 200 IM (113), 100 breast (110.5), and 100 free (105).

Ohio State continued to flex their deep squad just as they did in 2020. Looking at all swimmers on every team who swam prelims yet did not qualify for finals, Ohio State had the least number of swimmers miss finals every single session. For example, on day four Michigan had 6 swimmers miss the top 24 while Ohio State only had 2 swimmers not qualify into finals. Overall, Ohio State had 14 swims that did not make finals. The next-best team was Michigan with 25 non-final swims.

While Ohio State had graduated the most points from last year, they still returned 860 points to Michigan’s 936 returning points. The Buckeye seniors, however, were the most dominant class at this meet having scored 422 total points, which is 200 points more than any other senior class at this meet.

Ohio State also won four individual titles along with both medley relays and the 200 free relay. Scoring 92 points for the Buckeyes was senior Kristen Romano, who won both the 200 IM (1:54.19) and 400 IM (4:06.75) along with taking second in the 200 back. Senior teammate Katherine Trace scored the 2nd-most points with 79, which include her 400 IM runner-up finish and 3rd-place 200 fly finish. Junior Veronica Tafuto won the 500 free on the first full day of competition while sophomore Hannah Bach won the 100 breast the next day after placing 6th last year.

What made Ohio State’s performance even more dominant was the fact that every single athlete scored double-digit points at this meet. The lowest scorer managed to pick up 14 points, which is a B-final swim.

OHIO STATE SCORING BREAKDOWN

Scoring breakdown provided by Andrew Mering.

YEAR POINTS EVENT PLACE TIME POWER EVENT PLACE TIME POWER EVENT PLACE TIME POWER
Romano, Kristen SR 92 200 IM 1 1:54.19 820 400 IM 1 4:06.75 745 200 Back 2 1:53.18 729
Trace, Katherin SR 79 200 IM 6 1:57.27 720 400 IM 2 4:07.9 727 200 Fly 3 1:56.13 716
Tafuto, Veronic JR 78 500 Free 1 4:39.58 744 200 Free 9 1:46.48 677 1650 Free 4 16:08.4 668
Zenick, Katheri FR 72 50 Free 6 22.25 740 100 Fly 5 52.73 704 100 Free 7 48.74 720
Fulmer, Amy A SO 71 50 Free 7 22.39 715 200 Free 6 1:46.24 686 100 Free 6 48.69 724
Gresser, Hanna SR 69 200 IM 8 1:58.72 677 100 Breast 6 59.91 731 200 Breast 7 2:11.08 687
Crane, Emily JR 68 50 Free 5 22.24 742 100 Back 2 51.38 780 100 Free 12 49.51 657
Bach, Hannah M SO 56 100 Breast 1 58.29 835 200 Breast 6 2:10.98 689
Rayner, Freya SR 54 50 Free 8 22.43 708 100 Back 12 53.79 637 100 Free 10 49.16 685
Petrak, Taylor SR 52 50 Free 4 22.06 776 100 Free 4 47.99 785
Panitz, Josephi SO 50 200 IM 9 1:58.46 685 100 Breast 12 1:00.57 693 200 Breast 12 2:12.29 657
Geringer, Maya FR 45 500 Free 9 4:44.74 673 1650 Free 5 16:13.58 648
Kraus, Morgan A SO 40 100 Fly 14 53.26 669 100 Back 9 53.41 659 200 Back 18 1:57.43 613
Barker, Lexie 38 3 mtr Diving 13 300.6 Platform Diving 6 273.0
Brenn, Jackie 38 3 mtr Diving 12 311.4 Platform Diving 24 183.6 1 mtr Diving 8 303.95
Russo, Catherin FR 37 50 Free 10 22.31 729 100 Fly 9 52.33 730
Mathews, Janess FR 36.5 100 Breast 10 1:00.52 696 200 Breast 9 2:11.50 677
Crawford, Macke 36 3 mtr Diving 22 267.1 Platform Diving 17 204.8 1 mtr Diving 6 306.55
Fye, Nicole M SR 33 500 Free 8 4:51.45 578 200 Free 19 1:48.64 592 1650 Free 20 16:36.17 552
McGing, Ciara 31.5 3 mtr Diving 28 257.2 Platform Diving 3 307.0 1 mtr Diving 20 261.55
Sommerstad, Kyr FR 30 400 IM 12 4:14.55 627 200 Back 12 1:56.52 639
Jaspeado, Natal SR 28 500 Free 18 4:49.12 612 400 IM 13 4:14.57 627 1650 Free 18 16:35.96 553
Turchanik, Sara SO 28 200 IM 12 1:59.32 659 200 Fly 14 1:59.65 603
Wolfe, Brynna E SO 27 100 Back 11 53.6 648 200 Back 16 2:00.43 522
Harrison, Trist FR 26 100 Fly 13 53.19 673 200 Back 15 1:57.24 619
Baker, Leah H SO 23 100 Breast 7 1:00.55 694
Barker, Lexie SR 15 1 mtr Diving 12 286.65
Palutsis, Amand JR 15 50 Free 14 22.61 677 100 Fly 23 54.62 577
Walsh, Aislinn SO 14 200 Fly 13 1:59.57 605

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pete kennedy
3 years ago

A bit of history:

In 1976 at the Men’s NCAA Championships at Army (West Point) Coach Ray Buzzard of Tennessee had his 2 finalist in the 100 free swim to easy 5th and 6th place finishes so that they would be fresh for the 400 free relay.
This resulted in the discussion and passing of the rule of “an honest effort”.

Mike
3 years ago

Nice, thanks for the breakdown. It just shows that depth wins conference titles.

Angry Goose
3 years ago

When/where are 2022 Big Ten Championships?

Admin
Reply to  Angry Goose
3 years ago

Goose – I haven’t seen that formally announced anywhere yet. Purdue has claimed that they are hosting one or the other, but haven’t said which ones yet.

Guerra
Reply to  Braden Keith
3 years ago

I didn’t know Purdue was still in the Big Ten Conference…

Phil McDade
Reply to  Angry Goose
3 years ago

Some discussion that Wisconsin might be in the running for the 2022 women’s meet at its new pool. Nothing confirmed yet, however.

Guerra
3 years ago

Congratulations to the Ohio State women and my old friend, and our longtime Indiana University nemesis, Coach Billy Dorenkott! Bill might be one of the most underrated coaches in the country. I’ve had numerous athletes swim for him at Ashland, Penn State and Ohio State and all of them got faster, had a great experience and Bill treated them like his own family. I hope Mel and Coleman can get a video interview with him this week.

Scarlet
3 years ago

Dominant team performance! Go Bucks!!!

Daniel Jablonski
3 years ago

Damn. Really shows the power of depth. I know none of the names on the Ohio women’s squad, but that is obviously something that should change!

Jackman
3 years ago

Can’t believe the disrespect to OSU in this article

boohoobuckeyes
Reply to  Jackman
3 years ago

I laughed too hard at this. 🤣😂🤣😂

Swim Coach
3 years ago

OUCH. Penn State 10th

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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