Buckeye Spotlight – April 16
4/16/2024 3:56:00 PM | General
Weekly highlight of the student-athletes behind the major moments in Ohio State Athletics
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Week in and week out, Buckeye student-athletes raise the standard of excellence set at Ohio State, whether that be in competition, in the classroom, or in the community. 'Buckeye Spotlight' recognizes student-athletes who had noteworthy accomplishments both in contests and beyond the box score.
Monday evening in the Schottenstein Center, the annual Ohio State Scholar-Athlete Awards ceremony was held, with 811 Buckeyes recognized as Ohio State Scholar-Athletes. Outstanding student-athletes and teams were presented with postgraduate scholarships and awards. Women's swimmer Amy Fulmer and men's diver Lyle Yost were the recipients of the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor, while the winners of the inaugural Eugene D. Smith Award were Cody Simon of the football team and Jenn Gardiner from the women's hockey program. Read more on the night HERE.
Here are this week's Buckeye Spotlight student-athletes:
Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka & Joy Dunne | Women's Hockey
- Barnes, Bilka and Dunne won silver with Team USA at the 2024 IIHF Women's World Championships last week in Utica, N.Y.
- The Buckeye trio helped the United States finish undefeated in preliminary play and advance to the gold medal game.
- Playing in her first World Championships, Dunne tallied her first goal with the National Women's Team in the 10-0 win over Japan.
- Bilka scored the game-winning goal in the 5-0 semifinal win over Finland and finished with four points in the tournament.
- Barnes was plus-7 in seven games played in the tournament and added two assists.
- Bump hit a team-best .583 for the Buckeyes last week and collected at least one hit in each of Ohio State's four games.
- In a 9-5 series-finale win at Wisconsin, she went 3-for-3 with a home run and also drove in a run with a bases-loaded single.
- Her .833 slugging percentage and .615 on-base percentage were also the best on the team last week.
- Bump's big week upped her season batting average to .330, which is the third-highest amongst the Buckeyes' everyday starters.
- McGinty shot three under-par rounds en route to winning the Therese Hession Buckeye Invitational.
- McGinty fired rounds of 71 (-1), 68 (-5) and 71 (-1) to finish with a 54-hole score of 210 (-6). Her 68 was the lowest round shot among the field of 75 players.
- The win is McGinty's seventh collegiate victory and second as a Buckeye. She is the first Buckeye to win the Therese Hession Buckeye Invitational since Rachel Rohanna in 2012.
- Okuley had a phenomenal week as he helped the Buckeyes to a 4-1 record, with wins against Bowling Green, Morehead State and Iowa.
- Okuley batted .333 with six hits, including three home runs and three doubles, seven RBI, six runs scored and two stolen bases.
- In the Buckeyes' victory over Morehead State, Okuley hit two home runs; it was the second two-homer game of his career. He also went yard in Ohio State's dominant 11-1 victory over Iowa.
- Pasteur recorded a team-best 17 kills to help power the Buckeyes to a 3-1 win over Lewis in the MIVA Quarterfinals.
- The win advanced the Buckeyes to the semifinals Thursday in Muncie, Ind. (4 p.m./ESPN+), where they will face No. 2 seed Loyola Chicago.
- Against the Flyers, Pasteur hit .424, added four assists, four aces, four digs and a pair of blocks.
- Ratliff posted three wins as the Buckeyes notched two Big Ten road victories last weekend.
- She was a straight-set winner on court three vs. Iowa and then won in two sets against Nebraska.
- Ratliff and Audrey Spencer also paired up for a doubles victory against Iowa.
- The No. 15-ranked Buckeye Buckeyes close the regular season with home matches this weekend, hosting Northwestern Friday and Illinois Sunday.
- Riedinger won the shot put at the Tom Jones Memorial with a best throw of 17.53m / 57'6.25" to put him in the Top 80 in the country this season.
- Stringer won the shot put competition at the Tom Jones Memorial with a personal-best throw of 17.21m / 56'5.75" – the best throw for the Buckeye women this season by more than a meter. She now ranks third in program history in the event.
- Stringer also finished ninth in the invitational women's hammer throw with a best throw of 55.85m / 183'3".
- She ranks 15th in the country in the shot put and 41st in the hammer throw.
- In a weekend that featured three undefeated conference teams, Tracy led Ohio State to a pair of victories with four combined wins.
- He had two straight-set singles wins, including a solid 6-3, 7-5 victory over No. 43 Ronald Hohmann of Michigan State on Saturday.
- Tracy provided the clinching doubles point in the win over Michigan as he and partner Robert Cash beat the No. 24-ranked team of Gavin Young and Jacob Bickersteth 7-1 in a tiebreaker.
- Tracy leads the top-ranked Buckeyes with a team-high 57 combined wins this season.
