Swimming and Diving Team Wins Big Ten Championship

ADDITIONAL INFO

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Ohio State women’s swimming and diving program claimed the 2020 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship Saturday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center at the University of Iowa. The title marks the Buckeyes’ sixth in program history and the first since 1986. After taking the lead on the first full day of competition, the Buckeyes maintained a steady advantage all the way through Saturday evening and won the title by a margin of 197 points. Ohio State director of swimming and diving Bill Dorenkott earned his fourth Big Ten Championship, having claimed three prior titles as the head coach at Penn State.

“I’m so proud of our team and our coaches for the work that they’ve put into this,” said head coach Bill Dorenkott. “This has been a long time coming and what an outstanding performance our kids had. This wasn’t just one season of work, it was three and four years building up to this point. It’s a lot of belief, a lot of faith and a heck of a lot of hard work.”

Overall, the Ohio State women finished with three individual Big Ten Champions and a 200 Freestyle Relay Big Ten Championship. Kathrin Demler finished first in the 500 Free, Molly Kowal won gold in the 1,650 Free and Mackenzie Crawford was crowned a Big Ten Champion on the 1-Meter springboard.

An additional three relay squads took home silver including the 200 Medley Relay, 800 Free Relay and 400 Free Relay teams. Freya Rayner was a silver medalist in the 100 Free while Georgia White was a Big Ten runner-up in the 200 Free and Kathrin Demler finished second in the 400 IM.

Rounding out the podium finishes, Rayner claimed third in the 50 Free, Kristen Romano won bronze in the 400 IM and Crawford secured her second podium spot of the weekend in the 3-Meter competition.

Seven Buckeyes earned First Team honors, including Mackenzie Crawford, Kathrin Demler, Amy Fulmer, Lucija Jurkovic-Perisa, Molly Kowal, Taylor Petrak and Freya Rayner. Hannah Bach, Rebekah Bradley, Katie Trace and Georgia White all earned Second Team honors. Junior Laura Banks was Ohio State’s Sportsmanship award recipient.

Team Scores

Ohio State – 1,503.5
Michigan – 1,306.5
Indiana – 964
Northwestern – 907.5
Wisconsin – 734
Minnesota – 617
Purdue – 602
Penn State – 517.5
Iowa – 430
Nebraska – 385
Rutgers – 291
Michigan State – 203
Illinois – 193

1,650 Freestyle

Senior Molly Kowal set a new Big Ten meet record and new pool record in the 1,650 free as she touched first with a time of 15:43.17. She also beat her personal best time of 15:44.61. Kowal was the Big Ten runner-up last year with a time of 15:49.53.
Overall five Buckeyes scored points in the event as Sally Tafuto placed sixth with a NCAA B cut time of 16:13.75, followed by Nicole Fye in ninth, Natalia Jaspeado in 10th and Georgia Mosher in 14th.

200 Backstroke

Kristen Romano swam in the A final and finished sixth with an NCAA B cut time of 1:53.99.
Rebekah Bradley and Brynna Wolfe finished 11th and 16th overall, respectively while earning a combined 26.5 team points.

100 Freestyle

Freya Rayner tallied another podium finish as she clinched the Big Ten runner-up title in the 100 Freestyle with an NCAA B cut time of 47.81.
Overall, five Buckeyes swam in the A final and tallied an impressive 122 points from the event.
Lucija Jurkovic-Perisa, Taylor Petrak, Amy Fulmer and Georgia White finished fifth through eights while all securing NCAA B times.

200 Breaststroke

Hanna Gresser tallied 24 team points for the Buckeyes with a sixth place finish and an NCAA B cut time of 2:08.60.
Josie Panitz won the B Final and placed ninth overall with a fast swim of 2:10.21.
Hannah Bach and Sarah Sperber each received NCAA B cut times for their swims in the C Final as Bach finished first in the heat with a time of 2:12.01.

200 Butterfly

Kathrin Demler set a new school record in the 200 butterfly as she finished fourth with a time of 1:54.44, just 1.16 off the pace of the top time.
Katie Trace finished first in the C final and 17th overall in the event with an NCAA B time of 1:58.65.

Platform Diving

Genevieve Angerame made an impressive return to the platform after not competing in the A finals last season and posted an NCAA A qualifying score of 252.45 to claim eighth.
Two-time medalist already, Mackenzie Crawford finished ahead of the pack in the B Final with an NCAA A score of 232.70.
Lexie Barker rounded out the Buckeye point scorers with a 12th place finish overall.

400 Freestyle Relay

With the meet already clinched, the relay team of Lucija Jurkovic-Perisa, Taylor Petrak, Amy Fulmer and Freya Rayner took to the water for one last swim. The squad set a new school record and claimed the silver medal with an NCAA A time of 3:13.06.