Women’s Swimming And Diving Open Season At Ohio University – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/25/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swim & Dive
Oct. 25, 2001
COLUMBUS, Ohio- The Ohio State women’s swimming and diving team will hit the road Friday and open its regular season against Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. The team will compete with the men’s squad in the first of six coed meets this season. The meet is the first action for the Buckeyes since their intrasquad scrimmage Oct. 12.
Buckeye Head Coach Jeanne Fleck
Jeanne Fleck begins her third season as head coach with a 9-15 overall dual meet record in her first two seasons. Before coming to Ohio State Fleck served as the head swimming coach at Northern Illinois for eight seasons and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year in 1999. Under Fleck, the Buckeyes doubled their win total last year and are looking for that same type of improvement this season. That task begins Friday in Athens.
“This will be the first meet of the year and we want to do really well,” Fleck said. “We have not beaten Ohio in a long time so this is a team goal. It should be a close meet with Ohio being MAC champions last year. We can’t wait to see what our freshmen can do.”
Matt Anderson is entering his third season as the women’s swimming assistant coach. He came to Ohio State with Fleck after serving as her top assistant at Northern Illinois. Anderson also serves as the recruitng coordinator and oversees the sprint groups in practice.
Diving Head Coach Vince Panzano
Now entering his 24th year as head diving coach at Ohio State, Vince Panzano’s record speaks for itself. He has produced one world champion, one junior world champion, two Olympic medalists, 22 U.S. diving champions, eight NCAA champions, 14 NCAA runners-up, 66 Big Ten champions and 76 All-Americans. Panzano also has been selected NCAA Diving Coach of the Year three times in 1986, 1987 and 1988, and Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year six times.
The Leaders
Last season, All-American diver Natalia Diea (Sr., Austin, Texas/Texas) took all the headlines. Diea earned All-Big Ten and All-America honors with her stellar performance in the platform diving event. She took home a sixth place finish at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships after earning first place at the Big Ten Championships. Diea will be looked upon once again to lead the Buckeyes in 2001-02.
Leading the swimmers again this season will be Amanda Treleaven (So., Adelaide, Australia/Norwood) and Kristin Sendrowski (Sr., Garden City, N.Y./H. Frank Carey). Treleaven and Sendrowski were both named most valuable swimmers a year ago and will be expected to carry the load in their events once again.
The Buckeyes also will rely on Katie Severson (So., Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota West), the top newcomer from a year ago. She returns as the top sprint freestyler. Severson set season team bests in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyles with times of :23.76 and :51.53, respectively.
“Katie improved so much last year,” Fleck said. “She is just going to continue to get better for us. We also have brought in several sprinters to challenge her, which will only make her a stronger swimmer in the big meets.”
Co-captain Kristin Sander (So., Fairmont, W.Va./Fairmont) will add veteran leadership and experience to the 2001-02 team. She was voted one of the team’s most inspirational swimmers during last year.
“Kristin will provide great leadership for our team,” Fleck said. “She knows what it takes to score at Big Tens. This past summer she spent a lot of time training in Columbus and she should take charge of our middle distance group.”
Newcomers
Fleck added a large freshman class to the Ohio State swimming program. Her team includes 10 new faces- nine freshmen and one transfer.
“We added a very talented group of student-athletes to our program this year,” Fleck said. Highlighting the group of newcomers are five sprint freestylers. Ashley Barnes (Fr., Lexington, Ky./Dunbar) and Abby Grantstein (Fr., Wichita, Kan./East Wichita) will lead the new group of freestylers.
“Ashley and Abby are swimmers who can come in and do really well for us right away,” Fleck said. “Ashley will push Katie Severson and Abby will help out with our relay teams.”
Megan Hasselchwart (Fr., Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) will come in as a contender in the breaststroking events.
Scouting the Bobcats
The Bobcats are led by head coach Greg Werner. He enters his seventh season as head coach of the swimming and diving team. During his tenure at Ohio, he has produced a 92-58 overall record (62-18 women) and has won two Mid-American Conference titles for the women’s team. Werner also named 2000 MAC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year.
Next Up
The Buckeyes next meet will be held Saturday, Nov. 3 when they return home to face Maryland and Virginia Tech at noon. All home meets for the Buckeyes are held at the Mike Peppe Aquatic Center in Larkins Hall.
The order of events for are as follows for the women:
400 Medley Relay
1000 Freestyle
200 Freestyle
50 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
1 meter diving
200 Butterfly
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
500 Freestyle
3 meter diving
200 Breaststoke
400 Freestyle Relay
