Buckeye Sports Shorts – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/26/2003 12:00:00 AM | General
March 26, 2003
Congratulations to the newest Buckeye National Champions… Go Bucks!
The synchronized swimming team claimed first place honors atthe 2003 Collegiate National Championships Saturday at theUniversity of Arizona Recreational Pool in Tucson, Ariz. It marksthe fourth consecutive crown for the Buckeyes and 23rd title in the27-year history of the event. Ohio State senior Victoria Bowenearned her first collegiate solo title, while Suzanna Hyatt andfreshman Chelsea Luker teamed up to win the duet event. FreshmanAdam Crompton captured the national championship in men’s sabre atthe 2003 NCAA Fencing Championships Sunday at the Air Force Academyin Colorado Springs, Colo. Crompton defeated Ivan Lee of St.John’s,15-13, in the gold medal round to capture Ohio State’s firstnational title since Yelena Kalkina won the gold medal in women’sfoil in 1998. Natalia Diea (Sr., Austin, Texas/University of Texas)scored a 476.65 in the platform dive on the final day of the 2003NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships in Austin, Texas, tobecome the first Buckeye to win an NCAA women’s swimming or divingchampionship since 1988 and claim the school’s first women’splatform championship in program history. Jessica Marshall (Sr.,Columbus, Ohio) won individual championships in women’s air(461.70) and women’s sport pistol (651.00) and captured the two-gunaggregate title.
Sports Shorts
The No. 3 men’s gymnastics team will play host to the 2003 BigTen Championships this weekend in St. John Arena. The team andall-around finals will be at 7 p.m. Friday, with the individualevent finals at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Buckeyes are the two-timedefending conference champions and are looking for a thirdconsecutive title, something no Buckeye men’s gymnastics squad hasever done. Senior Raj Bhavsar, a finalist for the Nissen-EmeryAward, will look to defend his Big Ten all-around championship. Thesynchronized swimming team claimed first place honors at the 2003Collegiate National Championships Saturday at the University ofArizona Recreational Pool in Tucson, Ariz. It marks the fourthconsecutive crown for the Buckeyes and 23rd title in the 27-yearhistory of the event. Ohio State recorded 94.5 points to take homethe title as Stanford placed second (89.0) and Alabama-Birminghamfinished third (65.5). The Buckeyes, who came into the event as theunderdog to Stanford, won three out of the four events. Ohio Statesenior Victoria Bowen earned her first collegiate solo title with amark of 95.167. Senior Suzanna Hyatt and freshman Chelsea Lukerteamed up to win the duet event with a score of 93.834. It was thefirst title for both Buckeyes in the event. The Cardinal won thetrio event, but both Buckeye trios earned second and third place,respectively. Carly Grimshaw, Luker and Lauren Marsh posted a scoreof 93.833 for second while Bowen, Hyatt and Lindsay Newbillreceived a 91.833 for third. The Buckeyes also finished in the topspot of the team competition. The ‘A’ team garnered first placewith a score of 97.833. The ‘B’ team also had a nice showing,earning a respectable fourth-place finish with a mark of 93.667.Ohio State has qualified for the U.S. National Championships heldApril 24-27 in Long Island, N.Y. The U.S. Nationals represent thetop synchronized swimming programs from all levels of competition.Seniors Bowen and Hyatt and sophomores Newbill, Marsh, Emiko Takyuand Heather Burdick were named 2003 All-Americans. The honor isawarded to the Top 14 individual finishers, including ties, who areUnited States citizens. Bowen and Hyatt earned their third suchhonor. It was the first for the four sophomores. Bowen and Lukerwere two of three athletes to earn All-Collegiate honors inDivision I. Stanford’s Ashley McHugh joined the Buckeye duo insharing the award. All-Collegiate status is awarded to the Top 3individuals in each division (Division I, II and NAIA, III andclub). Hyatt was named the 2003 Collegiate Athlete of the Year andBowen earned the U.S. Collegiate Championships High Point Scorertitle at the event. Head coach Linda Witter also earned CollegiateCoach of the Year accolades. In addition to success in the pool,nine Buckeyes were honored as 2003 Academic All-Americans. Bowen,Hyatt, Newbill, Grimshaw, Jessica Beck, Katie Meyer, Sharon Mejia,Stephanie Raftery and Valerie Jolibois earned the honor for OhioState. A record 126 student-athletes earned Academic All-Americastatus. The honorees, from 23 universities, must earn at least a3.25 grade point average. Freshman Adam Crompton captured thenational championship in men’s sabre at the 2003 NCAA FencingChampionships Sunday at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs,Colo. Crompton defeated Ivan Lee of St.John’s, 15-13, in the goldmedal round to capture Ohio State’s first national title sinceYelena Kalkina won the gold medal in women’s foil in 1998. Theindividual title is just third for Ohio State in program history.Crompton and the Buckeyes placed fourth overall for thesecond-consecutive year. The Buckeyes scored a combined 167 pointscompared to 140 in 2002. Notre Dame captured the national titlewith 182 points followed by Penn State (179 points) and St. John’s(171). A trio of wrestlers claimed All-American status with sixthplace finishes at the 2003 NCAA Wrestling Championships in KansasCity’s Kemper Arena in leading Ohio State to 15th place with 37team points, one-point shy of conference mate Purdue. Ohio StateHWT Tommy Rowlands (Jr., Hilliard, Ohio), the 2002 NCAA Champion,was forced to take a medical default after suffering an injury inhis quarterfinal win, while senior Keaton Anderson (Sr.,Pickerington, Ohio) pushed through the tournament to claim sixth,as did junior John Clark (Canton, N.Y.) at 165. The All-Americanhonors are Clark and Anderson’s first of their career, whileRowlands earned the accolades for the third time. The men’s hockeyteam will travel to Providence, R.I., for the NCAA East Regional,its third trip to the NCAA Championships overall and under headcoach John Markell. The No. 13-ranked Buckeyes earned a No. 3 seedin the region and will face No. 2 Boston College at 3:30 p.m.Saturday at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. No. 1 seed Cornell will playMinnesota State at noon Saturday, with the winners of thefirst-round games meeting in the regional final at noon Sunday fora berth in the 2003 NCAA Frozen Four in Buffalo. Junior center R.J.Umberger was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial AwardThursday. He is just the third Buckeye to be so honored, joiningHugo Boisvert (1999) and Paul Pooley (1984). Umberger earned FirstTeam All-CCHA honors this season and was a finalist for theleague’s player of the year award. Goalie Mike Betz, a second teamall-league selection, was honored with the Mike and Marian IlitchHumanitarian Award at the CCHA’s awards banquet last week. He alsoreceived the conference’s goaltender of the year award afterposting a league-best goals-against average in conference play.Natalia Diea (Sr., Austin, Texas/University of Texas) scored a476.65 in the platform dive on the final day of the 2003 NCAASwimming & Diving Championships in Austin, Texas, to become thefirst Buckeye to win an NCAA women’s swimming or divingchampionship since 1988 and claim the school’s first women’splatform championship in program history. The national title wasDiea’s first in what was her fourth and final trip to the NCAAchampionships. The 2003 NCAA Platform Champion will compete at theWorld Championship Trials, April 10-13 at the Gabrielson Natatoriumat the University of Georgia, for a spot on the 2003 USA WorldChampionship Team. The pistol squad took fourth place at theNational Collegiate Pistol Championships held at Ft. Benning inColumbus, Ga. The Buckeyes posted a 6,221 three-gun score, just sixpoints from third place Army (6,227). The Navy defended their 2002championship with a 6,388 mark. The Citadel took second at 6,339.OSU’s Jessica Marshall (Sr., Columbus, Ohio) won individualchampionships in women’s air (461.70) and women’s sport pistol(651.00) and captured the two-gun aggregate title. In the open teamevents, Ohio State finished sixth in free pistol and air pistol andwas third in standard pistol. Marshall took fourth in open airpistol (646.5) and open standard pistol (541) and was ninth in openfree pistol (513). She finished third in the three-gun aggregate(total of the three open events). Buckeye Jennifer Trickett (So.,Woburn, Mass.) finished ninth in open standard pistol (529) and22nd in open air pistol (541). She also was third in women’s air(454.10) and fourth in women’s sport pistol (637.80). OSU’s AnthonyDouglass (Fr.,Marietta, Ohio) finished 11th in open air pistol(545) and was 22nd in open free pistol (494) while Tom Eberz (Jr.,Mogadore, Ohio) was 22nd in open free pistol (494). Ohio State hadtwo student-athletes named to the 2003 NRA Collegiate All-AmericanTeam. Marshall was a three-time first team all-American in openstandard and air pistol and in women’s sport pistol. Trickett wasalso a first team all-American in open air pistol and women’s sportpistol and was an honorable mention all-American in open standardpistol. The No. 4-seed women’s basketball team (22-9, 10-6 Big Ten)defeated No. 13-seed Weber State (21-9, 11-3 Big Sky), 66-44, Mach23 in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament at the ThomasAssembly Center on the Louisiana Tech campus in Ruston, La.Freshman Kim Wilburn led all scorers with career- and team-highmarks of 19 points and eight boards. The five-foot-six-inch guardfrom Southfield, Mich., also distributed seven assists, earnedthree steals, blocked one shot and had only one turnover. SeniorCourtney Coleman and junior LaToya Turner added 13 and 12 points,respectively. The Buckeyes then fell to No. 5-seed Louisiana Tech,74-61, Tuesday. Against La Tech, senior DiDi Reynolds and sophomoreCaity Matter scored 16 points apiece and senior Courtney Colemanearned a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards. The No. 15women’s gymnastics team (10-4) won all four events to defeat No. 23Utah State Saturday. The Buckeyes posted a score of 196.925 whileUtah State (10-9) tallied a mark of 195.100. The meet marked thelast home competition for Buckeye seniors Sheri Greig, StefanieMarshall, Sarah Spring and Rickee Wirtzberger. The Buckeyes willnow gear up for the Big Ten championships that take place thisweekend in Champaign, Ill. The event, hosted by the University ofIllinois, will be held at Huff Hall and is scheduled to begin at 6p.m. The No. 20 men’s lacrosse team (3-2) improved its record to3-2 with an 11-8 victory over Army Saturday. The squad was led bygoalie Tony Russo, who posted 15 saves to earn GWLL Player of theWeek honors. The team remains at home this weekend, as it playshost to Delaware at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jesse Owens MemorialStadium. The No. 16 softball team finished 2-4 at the ChevronInvitational in Honolulu, Hawai’i and will now shift their focus toBig Ten play as they open the conference season at 3 p.m. Fridayagainst Indiana at Buckeye Field in Columbus. Ohio State will playIndiana again at noon Saturday and will play host to Purdue in adoubleheader at noon Sunday March 30. No. 14 men’s volleyball (13-7overall, 9-3 MIVA) lost a close match at No. 5 Lewis last weekendand then defeated Quincy. OSU lost 0-3 (28-30, 39-31, 27-30) atLewis losing late leads in games one and two and having game point,29-28, in game two. Tom Trantow and Mike Wauligman had 13 killseach with Adam Pedersen adding 11 while hitting .733 (11-0-15). Inthe 3-0 (30-27, 30-26, 30-17) win at Quincy, the Buckeye got 14kills from Trantow and 12 from Scott Spurlock (.733). Buckeye AdamPedersen had nine kills in 11 attempts for a .818 hittingpercentage. OSU closed out the month on the road with a contestagainst Findlay Wednesday at Uniontown, Ohio and then travels toface Penn State Friday and George Mason Saturday. No. 17 women’slacrosse (5-1 overall, 2-0 American Lacrosse Conference) defeatedNo. 20 Northwestern, 14-4, Sunday in Evanston and then pushed itswinning streak to six with a 12-9 victory over No. 12 Notre DameTuesday. Against the Wildcats, Regina Oliver and Tracey Boundsscored three goals each with Noemi Hites and Caroline Weatherilladding two each. In goal for OSU was Erin Forquer who collectedeight saves in her fifth consecutive win. The Buckeyes return homefor the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Ohio State will face ninth-rankedNorth Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday after 11th-ranked Penn State playsNo. 2 Maryland at 5 p.m. In the second day of play, Penn Statefaces North Carolina Sunday at noon with Ohio State hostingMaryland at 2 p.m. The men’s basketball team completed its seasonwith a 17-15 overall record and a fifth-consecutive trip topostseason play. Seniors Brent Darby and Sean Connolly endedsuccessful careers, which included four postseason appearances (3NCAA/1NIT), a pair of Big Ten regular season co-championships(2000, 2002) and a postseason conference tournament title (2002).Darby finished his career as the No. 20 all-time scorer in OhioState history with 1,368 career points and tied for first in career3-pointers made with 153. He equaled Scoonie Penn’s total from1999-2000. Connolly completed his career No. 2 in all-time 3-pointshooting percentage with 147 made long range shots on 368 attemptsfor a .399 shooting percentage. His total makes tied NeshaunColeman (1996-99). Darby missed just 66 minutes of game action allseason for an average of 38.1 minutes per game. Nine track andfield athletes posted regional qualifying marks in the openingevent of the 2003 outdoor season at the Baldy Castillo Invitationalheld at Arizona State University. Leading the OSU contingent wassenior thrower Krista Keir, who shattered the Ohio State programrecord in the discuss with a 186-1.00 first place effort. Alsocontributing a first place mark was hurdler Dalanda Jackson as shebested the field in the 100-meter hurdles (14.27). Six Buckeyethrowers scored qualifying figures in Amarachi Ukabam, Erin Carter,John Norman, Shelaine Larson and Alexis McCall, while senior GeorgeHoover qualified by topping 209-0.00 in the javelin throw. Highjumper Jeff Cerveny also qualified with a leap of 6-9.75. The No.13 women’s golf team posted a score of 931 to place third at theBetsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational. The event was held at The HillsCountry Club (par 72; 6,247 yards) in Austin, Texas, and hosted byThe University of Texas. Ohio State sophomore Kristen White(Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) fired a 69 in the final roundto finish in a tie for second place individually at 224 (79-76-69).White’s 69 tied a career-low. Allison Hanna (Jr., Portland,Ore./David Douglas) shot even par to finish tied for eighth place(77-81-72=230) while Lindsay Knowlton (So., Toronto,Ontario/Havergal) tied for 11th (73-81-77=231). The baseball teamstopped a three-game losing streak to improve its record to 9-6with a 6-3 victory over Illinois Tuesday. Monday, the squad lostboth ends of a non-conference doubleheader to the Illini. OhioState is currently 2-3 on its spring break trip to Bradenton, Fla.The Buckeye beat Columbia 6-3 before falling to Vermont 7-6.Through Monday, Terry Pettorini was batting .615 (5-for-8) with twoRBI and one run scored. In the second game vs. Illinois Mondayafternoon he was 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly. Scott Lewis threw 10strikeouts in getting his third win of the season in the win overColumbia. The 2002 Big Ten Freshman of the Year has 37 strikeoutsthis year to lead the Big Ten. He has pitched only 26.0 innings andowns a 3-0 record with a 2.42 ERA. After a day off Wednesday, theBuckeyes open Big Ten play against Northwestern on Thursday at IMGAcademy in Bradenton. The squads will play single games Thursdayand Saturday with a doubleheader on Friday. Action begins each dayat 1 p.m. The women’s tennis team fell to Louisiana State, 5-2,Sunday. The Buckeyes’ two points came at No. 1 and 2 singles, asNo. 59 Sadhaf Pervez (Warren, N.J.) remained perfect at No. 1singles (12-0). Louisiana State snapped Ohio State’s season longrecord of earning the doubles point by sweeping all three doublesmatches. Buckeye Erica Fisk (Jr., Indianapolis, Ind.) recorded herthird-consecutive win. The squad will face Central Florida at theUCF Tennis Complex in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday. The team will playhost to Notre Dame at 1 p.m. Saturday and Indiana at 11 a.m.Sunday. The matches are scheduled to be played outdoors at theStickney Tennis Center. The men’s tennis team, 13-4, 3-0 in the BigTen, traveled to Myrtle Beach, S.C., during its spring break tripto compete against Coastal Carolina Tuesday. The Buckeyes won 6-1,losing just one singles match in the win. Ohio State is ranked No.26 (Intercollegiate Tennis Association results March 19) in thecountry and has two individuals ranked at the national level.Junior Jeremy Wurtzman is ranked No. 17 in the nation and seniorVincent Ng holds the No. 44 position. Ng, a senior from BroadviewHeights, Ohio, is four singles wins away from setting the OhioState record for career singles wins. Ng has a 2002-03 individualrecord of 31-6. Roger Smith (1983-86) currently holds the OSUrecord with 126 singles wins. Ng has a career singles record of123-44 to date. The Buckeyes return to Big Ten play with a matchagainst Indiana Sunday in Bloomington, Ind. The following is alist of Ohio State athletics events, both home and away, for theupcoming week.
GO BUCKS!
Ohio State Athletics Schedule
Wednesday, March 24-Sunday, March 30
All Times Eastern
Wednesday, March 26
Women’s Tennis at Central Florida, 2 p.m.
Orlando, Fla.
Men’s Volleyball vs. Findlay, 7 p.m.
Lake High School
Uniontown, Ohio
Thursday, March 27
Mitch Richeson at NCAA Diving Championships, All Day
Austin, Texas
Baseball vs. Northwestern, 1:05 p.m.
Bradenton, Fla.
Friday, March 28
Mitch Richeson at NCAA Diving Championships, All Day
Austin, Texas
Baseball vs. Northwestern, 1:05 p.m.
Bradenton, Fla.
Softball vs. Indiana, 3 p.m.
Buckeye Field
Baseball vs. Northwestern, 4:05 p.m.
Bradenton, Fla.
Men’s Gymnastics/Big Ten Championships, 7 p.m.
St. John Arena
Women’s Lacrosse vs. North Carolina, 7 p.m.
Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium
Men’s Volleyball at Penn State, 7 p.m.
University Park, Pa.
Saturday, March 29
Rowing at Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic, All Day
Redwood Shores, Calif.
Track & Field at Arizona State Invitational, All Day
Tempe, Ariz.
Softball vs. Indiana, noon
Buckeye Field
Men’s Lacrosse vs. Delaware, 1 p.m.
Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium
Women’s Tennis vs. Notre Dame, 1 p.m.
Stickney Tennis Center
Baseball vs. Northwestern, 1:05 p.m.
Bradenton, Fla.
NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship East Regional
Men’s Hockey vs. Boston College, 3:30 p.m.
Providence, R.I.
Women’s Gymnastics at Big Ten Championships, 6 p.m.
Champaign, Ill.
Men’s Gymnastics/Big Ten Championships, 7 p.m.
St. John Arena
Men’s Volleyball at George Mason, 7 p.m.
Fairfax, Va.
Sunday, March 30
Men’s Tennis at Indiana, TBA
Bloomington, Ind.
Rowing at Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic, All Day
Redwood Shores, Calif.
Women’s Tennis vs. Indiana, 11 a.m.
Stickney Tennis Center
Softball vs. Purdue, noon
Buckeye Field
Softball vs. Purdue, 2 p.m.
Buckeye Field
Women’s Lacrosse vs. Maryland, 2 p.m.
Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium
NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship East Regional
Second Round, Noon
Winner of Ohio State/Boston College vs. winner of Cornell/MSU Mankato
Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Providence, R.I.
