The Ohio State Buckeye women got a win in their first intercollegiate dual of the season, coming within a single win of sweeping the Miami Redhawks.
Amy Bopp, Lindsey Clary and Annie Gillig were the driving forces individually, each winning twice for OSU.
Bopp, a sophomore, got her wins in the 100 breast and 100 fly. She used a big back half split to power away with the breaststroke title in 1:04.27, then returned to win the 100 fly near the end of the meet in 57.33, once again closing extremely well compared to the field.
Clary, meanwhile, destroyed the 200 fly field by well over three seconds, going 2:04.85 for the win. She came back to nearly the same time in the 200 IM, 2:04.54. That was the fastest time in the event, though OSU exhibitioned all of its swimmers.
Gillig was the distance dominated for the Buckeyes. The junior went 10:08.75 in the 1000, plus 4:57.10 to win a tight race over teammate Alex Wittman in the 500.
The only swimmer to keep Miami from getting swept was reigning MAC Swimmer of the Week Stephanie LeMire. LeMire was able to beat out Ohio State’s top entrant by two and a half seconds to win the 200 breast in 2:20.32. LeMire was also second in the 100 breast to Bopp.
Ohio State went 1-2 in both relays. Aliena Schmidtke and Zhesi Li were on both winning squads. They made up the back half of the medley, with Schmidtke swimming fly (25.93) and Li free (23.85) to help the team go 1:45.79. Then Li split a field-best 50.85 to push the 400 free relay in front, before handing off to Schmidtke, who split 51.42. The team went 3:27.11.
Li continues to look the part of a big-time freshman, swimming a bit of an off-event but still winning the 100 back in 58.00. Schmidtke also won individually, going 24.04 in the 50 free.
OSU’s Taylor Ford and Brittany Menninger combined to sweep diving. Ford scored 281.25 on 1-meter with Menninger right behind, and the two reversed order on 3-meter, with Menninger scoring 312.53 to win.
Other winners for Ohio State: Camey Rabold in the 200 free (1:52.82), Macie McNichols in the 100 free (52.16) and Kaitlyn Ferrara in the 200 back (2:02.95). All that added up to a 172-115 Buckeye victory.
