Ohio State
Eastern Michigan
Ohio State Tops Eastern Michigan 203.5-96.5 – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swim & Dive
Nov. 14, 2015
Columbus, Ohio— The Ohio State men’s swimming and diving teams had not lost a dual meet so far this season coming into today. That statement is still true after the Buckeyes’ 203.5-96.5 decision at Eastern Michigan Saturday afternoon.
Matt McHugh, DJ MacDonald, Mark Belanger, and Mossimo Chavez started off the meet as every Ohio State meet has started this season: with a victory in the 200 medley relay. The foursome’s time of 1:30.79 bested the next fastest group by almost three seconds. In the 1000 freestyle, Jovan Mitrovic (9:18.62) edged out teammate Brayden Seal (9:19.04) before Eastern Michigan’s Andrew Henry (1:38.96) placed first in the 200 freestyle, outpacing Ohio State’s top finished Steffen Hillmer (1:40.92).
In the 100 backstroke, Belanger nabbed his second first-place finish of the day, his time of 49.42 beating out Andrew Appleby (50.25). MacDonald (56.14) just got by Christopher Hodges of Eastern Michigan (56.42) for first place in the 100 breaststroke before Ching Lim’s great performance in the 200 butterfly. The sophomore swam a 1:47.62, the fastest for a Buckeye this year and one of thirty best times in the nation this season. The Eagles’ Dylan Crompton won the 50 freestyle at 21.20, barely beating Chavez (21.29) heading into the first break.
Lim came back and won another event, this time the 100 freestyle (45.61). After narrowly missing out in the 100 backstroke, Appleby won the 200 backstroke with his time of 1:50.45, beating out Eastern Michigan’s Erik Gissen (1:51.11). That was followed by Seal (4:31.19) and Mitrovic (4:33.95) finishing first and second in the 500 freestyle, with Joey Long (4:34.08) just missing out in third. McHugh then swam a 48.11 in the 100 butterfly to head into the second break.
The final two swimming events both went to Ohio State. Lim’s great meet continued with his time of 1:50.61 in the 200 IM, beating the next closest swimmer by over three seconds and earning the fastest time for a Buckeye in that event to boot. The 400 freestyle relay went to the foursome of Nathan Christian, Hillmer, Chavez, and McHugh (3:00.79). Diving-wise it was another great performance by the Scarlet and Gray. Colin Zeng won both events, though one was much closer than the other. He won the three-meter with his score of 406.80, topping his teammate Christo Law (358.43). Zeng then recorded a 366.83 in the one-meter dive, which bested Eastern Michigan’s Alexander Chan (365.40) by the slimmest of margins.
After all of that, Ohio State came away with a sound 203.5-96.5 victory over the Eagles. The Buckeyes are still perfect in dual meets this season and will carry that record over to 2016, with the final competition of the calendar year coming next weekend in the annual OSU Invite. More information on that event to come.
