A strong start to the season has given the Ohio State men’s swimming and diving team a 6-1 record and high expectations for the rest of the year.
“I’m fairly pleased with the way things have gone so far,” swimming coach Bill Wadley said. “I think that we can definitely be better, yet at the same time I feel like they’ve given a pretty good effort.”
During the Buckeyes last meet on Jan. 17 they beat Miami University 151-86 while winning 12 of 13 events. Junior Tommy Seay won the 100-yard freestyle event with a personal best time of 44.77 seconds, which narrowly missed the school record and was a NCAA B qualifying time.
“Seay’s 100-yard freestyle time happened to be a winning time and also his best time of his life, which is fantastic if you can do that during the season,” Wadley said. “Not very many people can do that.”
OSU’s lone setback of the year came Jan. 10 with a 130-111 loss to Big Ten foe Indiana. Despite the loss, the team was not overly disappointed with its performance.
“I don’t think it was that bad,” senior Andreas Campioni said. “We had a good meet and all swam good times. It’s one of those things that happens sometimes.”
Wadley agreed with the senior.
“We had a good meet but lost three close races,” he said. “If you win those three close races that were won by one-tenth or two-tenths of a second, then we would have won the meet.”
On the diving side, the men have won both the 1-meter and 3-meter titles in all seven dual meets. Junior Mitch Richeson has captured the 1-meter title in all seven, while winning the 3-meter dive in three meets. Freshman Kellen Harkness won the 3-meter competition in the other four meets.
Richeson hopes to win his first Big Ten diving championship after finishing second twice.
“Hopefully he’ll be able to win a Big Ten title this year,” diving coach Vince Panzano said. “He’s diving well.”
The success of Harkness has not come as a surprise to Panzano.
“I had known [Harkness] for a couple of years prior to coming to Ohio State,” he said. “I knew that he was a talented kid that would do well.”
The Buckeyes next meet will come on Feb. 6 against Penn State. Wadley expects an even matchup.
“I think Penn State is very competitive,” he said. “I would expect that we’ll have a very similar meet with them that we had against Indiana.”
OSU has gotten impressive swimming performances from Seay and sophomore Marty Tomes. Seay has won the 100-yard freestyle in six of seven dual meets, while Tomes won both the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly against Miami and Ohio University. Tomes and junior Rob Kauscher represented the Buckeyes at the Auburn Invitational, where Kauscher finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
“I think we have several people who have done a nice job,” Wadley said.
The team now sets its sights ahead to the rest of the season, including the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Championships.
“Hopefully we’ll do top five at the Big Tens,” junior Matt Jeffries said. “That’s what our team goal is, to be top five.”
On the diving side, Panzano agreed.
“Our true measure is how we do at the end of the year,” he said. “We want to keep improving and have our best performances in February and March.”
