Swimmers Set To Face Maryland And Virginia Tech – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swim & Dive
Nov. 1, 2001
COLUMBUS, Ohio– The Ohio State women’s swimming and diving team return to the water this weekend for its home opener against the Terrapins of Maryland and the Hokies of Virginia Tech. The meet will be coed and will begin at noon in the Mike Peppe Aquatic Center in Larkins Hall.
Last Week
The Buckeyes fell to the Ohio Bobcats last Friday in Athens, 142-99. Winners for the Buckeyes on the women’s side included Amanda Treleaven (So., Adelaide, Australia/Norwood) in the 200 backstroke, Melanie Johnson (Jr., Boca Raton, Fla./Olympic Heights)in the 3-meter dive and Jillian Cicione (Jr., Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas) in the 1-meter dive.
“We had a solid first meet,” head coach Jeanne Fleck said. “We are looking forward to this weekend and a great meet with Virginia Tech especially. We match up very closely. We will have to turn it up a notch because our star captain Krissy Sendrowski is injured and tried to swim last weekend. We probably won’t see her Saturday. Hopefully we will keep getting better each week and our freshman can step up.”
Buckeye Head Coach Jeanne Fleck
Jeanne Fleck is in 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. She also has produced 17 Academic All-Big Ten selections in her first two seasons at OSU.
Meet Assistant Coach Matt Anderson
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 in 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. Melanie Johnson and Jillian Cicione are also back, both winning the 3-meter and 1-meter dives last weekend in Athens.
Leading the swimmers are Amanda Treleaven 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. Treleaven took home first place in the 200 backstroke last weekend against Ohio.
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. Coach Fleck says that Severson and Treleaven’s performance will be vital to beat Virginia Tech. Co-captain Kristin Sander (So., Fairmont, W.Va./Fairmont) adds 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) is a contender in the breaststroking events.
Scouting Maryland and Virginia Tech
The Hokies are coached by Ned Skinner and Chirs Waters. They are 3-0 with wins over UConn, Richmond and Radford. The women finished second in the Big East last year during their first season in the conference. They had previously won two straight Atlantic-10 titles before joining the Big East.
Marland is 4-1 with victories over N.C. State, Duke , Johns Hopkins and Howard. Their lone loss on the season came at the hands of Florida State on Oct. 19. The Terrapins are coached by Jim Wenhold and John Walsh. Wenhold is in his ninth season as head coach and is the all-time winningest women’s swimming coach in school history.
Next Up
The Buckeyes return to the water next Friday Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. when they stay at home to face the Mountaineers of West Virginia. The Bucks will then hit he road on Saturday to face Purdue and Iowa in West Lafayette, Ind. at 2 p.m. EST.
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
