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Mission Aroura Colorado Swimming’s Gherman Prudnikau has committed to swim for The Ohio State this upcoming season. Prudnikau, who finished up his senior of high school this past spring at Grandview High School, stated his reasons for choosing OSU,
I chose Ohio State not only because it’s THE Ohio State but the environment is amazing. The coaches are super nice, very motivating and have everything planned out and under control. The swimmers, my future teammates, they are awesome, I connected with them so quickly the second I met them on my visit. Overall, The Ohio state is the college for me since I wanna be a great swimmer as well as a pilot for United Airlines and Ohio State is the only college that can fulfill those dreams.
Earlier this season, Prudnikau set personal bests in five different events at the Sectionals meet held this past March in Austin, Texas. The Mission Aroura swimmer swept the 500/1000/1650 events, climbing to the top of the podium with new personal bests of 4:22.89, 9:02.35 and 15:13.10. He also made the A-final in the 200 fly and 400 IM, placing 2nd and 4th respectively in those events, also in new personal best of 1:46.75 and 3:54.70.
While not setting any new personal bests, Prudnikau did help his high school team, Grandview, place 7th overall at the Colorado Boys 5A State Championships this past May. He swept the two longer freestyle events, winning the 200 by nearly two full seconds as he stopped the clock in 1:38.19. In the 500, he had an even greater margin taking the win by over five seconds with his 4:27.14.
He also cut under the 21-second barrier, splitting 20.97 on his team’s 200 free relay, which won the B-Final in a 1:26.61. He also closed out the meet by opening his school’s 400 free relay with a lead-off split of 46.31, a time that helped Grandview finish 5th in the A-Final with a time of 3:04.00.
More recently in long course meters, Prudnikau took on his normal staple of events at the recent USA Junior Nationals. Like at the Austin Sectionals, he set new PBS across a plethora of events. He finished 72nd in the 400 IM with a new best of 4:37.02 and in the timed finals 800 and 1500, he rewrote his own PBs with timed of 8:15.76 (19th) and 16:00.29 (30th).
The Colorado native earned himself a second swim in the 400 free. He finished 20th in the prelims with a new PB of 3:58.58, his first time under the vaunted- 4:00 minute barrier. Not content with just one PB in the event, in the C-Final, Prudnikau cut another half second off his prelims swim, stopping the clock at 3:58.08 to move up two places to finish 18th overall.
Best SCY Times:
- 200 Free – 1:36.99
- 500 Free – 4:22.14
- 1000 Free – 9:02.35 (not a DI NCAA Event)
- 1650 Free – 15:13.10
Prudnikau will be joining an OSU program that finished 3rd at the Big Ten Conference Championships this past winter and 16th at NCAAs, a month later in March.
The Buckeyes scored a large number of points from Tristan Jankovics‘ win in the 400 IM and Tomas Navikonis‘ win in the 200 free at Big 10s, but they also racked up points in Prudnikau’s principle events, the 500 and 1650 frees. In the 500, OSU placed one swimmer into the A-Final, and three into the B-Final. Mason Edmund placed 6th in the A-Final with a time of 4:17.60, while Alex Metzler, Jordi Vilchez and Sam Campbell were 10th, 12th and 14th in the B-final with times of 4:15.78, 4:16.44 and 4:17.74, respectively. Martin Perecinsky also placed 21st in the C-Final with a 4:19.82.
In the timed final mile. the Buckeyes placed two into the top eight places, with Edmund finishing as the runner-up with a time of 14:45.81 and Campbell taking 5th with a time of 14:49.25. Much like in the 500, OSU was well represented in the 9-24th placings, as Metzler, Charlie Clark, TJ Frost finished 9th, 10th and 17th overall.
Prudnikau’s PB in the 500 of 4:22.14 would be just outside of making the finals, as his time would have placed 28th in prelims at the 2025 edition of Big 10s. In the mile, however, his best of 15:13.10 would put him into the scoring as he would have finished 19th overall, collecting 6 points.
His 200 free best of 1:36.99 would have placed him 27th prelims and not far out of scoring, but his 200 fly PB of 1:46.75, may be the better option, pointwise, for OSU as the time would have been 19th in prelims and with the event having just 22nd entrants, he would be guaranteed points for the team, barring a DQ.
Joining him in Columbus, Ohio this season are fellow commits, Aidan Levine, Mason Francis, Rayburn Kohl, Austin Hickok, Ethan Reniewicki and Cooper Burt,
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