Men’s Swimming Capture Three Big Ten Events; Set Six OSU Records – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/17/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swim & Dive
March 17, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 400 Medley Relay team of Marko Strahija (Sr., Zagreb, Croatia), Kevin Kling (Sr., Louisville, Kent.), Jason Fox (So., Goshen, Ind.) and Brian Malich (Fr., Mason, Ohio) set a Big 10 record of 3:11.74 at the first day of the Big 10 Championships in Minneapolis. The relay splits were 48.3 backstroke, 52.8 breastroke, 47.2 fly, 43.2 freestyle. This time automatically qualifies the team for the NCAA Championships. This relay is still currently 2nd in the nation after all conference meets are finished. “I was a little flustered coming into the relay and a little off-balanced. But my teammates got me fired up and ready to go and when I hit the water, it was an incredible feeling,” Malich said. “I’m not too sure how I feel about the new record, it’s all so new to me. Being that I’m only a freshman, I have a lot to live up to now.” Malich came back on the third day of competition to capture the 100 freestyle championship in a time of :43.89. “My first Big Ten Championship and with the crowd, it was incredible. I felt great as soon as I stepped up on the block. I knew right after the preliminaries I could win it,” Malich said. “I knew I still had something left after this morning. I was thinking about this being my first Big Ten race and here’s my chance to win the title. My goal was to break 44 (seconds) and I did that,” he added. Kevin Kling added a third championship for Ohio State as he won the 100 butterfly (:54.50). This marks his second championship as he won the event in 1996. “I feel really good about this because I gained a lot of confidence in myself after last night’s performance in the relays. The guys I swam against tonight were juniors and seniors and I knew them all really well. So in that regard, it was a really fun race also,” Kling said. “I was kind a nervous going into this race because I was not satisfied with my performance last year. I felt like I had really let down the team last year, so I trained really hard for this event all year long to really make up for the way I swam last year.” Six Ohio State records fell at the Big 10 Championships. The 400 medley relay, the 200 Medley squad (1.28.69), the 400 free relay of Malich, Kling, Nick Ohman (Sr., Fagersta, Sweden) and Matt Braun (So., Berkley, Mich.) ( 2.56.40) and the 200 free relay (1:20.15) with the same members as the 400 free. Jason Fox broke the 200 individual medley record with his 1.48.49 placing him 2nd at the Big Tens. Marko Strahija broke the 200 backstroke record with a 1.44.59 placing him 3rd. The above individuals, along with platform diver Mike McIntyre (So., Orlando, Fla.), will represent Ohio State in the upcoming NCAA Championships on March 26-28 in Auburn, Ala.
