Around the Oval: Men’s and women’s tennis head to the ITA National Indoor Championships, women’s hockey Minnesota State, swimming and diving, and winning the Tim Welsh Classic

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Olympic sports in Ohio turned out to be a great week to close out the month of January.

In this edition of Around the Oval, the Eleven Warriors’ one-stop-shop for coverage of Olympic sports programming in Ohio, we provide a recap of the past seven days of men’s and women’s tennis, women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and some news and notes on several other teams.

Let’s dig deeper.

Men’s tennis

The #2 Ohio State men’s tennis team continued their hot start to the indoor season by sweeping UCF and Oregon at ITA Kickoff Weekend in Columbus and earning a spot at the ITA Indoor National Championships in Chicago Feb. 17-20.

With wins over the Knights and Ducks, Ohio State now has an impressive 7-0 record this year and gave up just one point in those games. The Buckeyes will take on Texas A&M, Texas, Wake Forest, Virginia and Baylor before they travel to the Windy City for the indoor tournaments.

Ohio State is no stranger to ITA indoors, as head coach Ty Tucker and his program have now qualified for the championships for the 16th time in program history. The Buckeyes have also found tremendous success in the event, taking first-place honors in 2014 and 2019, and most recently, finishing as TCU’s runner-up in 2022.

Women’s tennis

Like the men’s team, the No. 12 Ohio State women’s tennis team won both matches over the weekend, defeating Old Dominion and Tennessee en route to securing a spot at the ITA Indoor Championships in Seattle from February 10-13. .

After the Buckeyes’ 4-2 victory over the No. 22 Volunteers, coach Melissa Schaub said she was proud of the effort her players showed when they overcame adversity in their games, found a way to win and helped send their team to the next game. round.

“We had to dig deep today, and I’m very proud of our team and our efforts there,” said Schaub. “We’ve got some veterans who’ve come out big in the big moments. It wasn’t always pretty or our best, but we were strong. Our backs were against the wall tonight, being at home and having our fans cheer for us really helped.”

The Buckeyes have now qualified for the championship for the seventh time in the past eight years, including five straight seasons dating back to 2018. With a 3-0 record, Ohio State is slated to take on Oklahoma State and Georgia before traveling west. ita on the inside.

Women’s ice hockey

The No. 1 women’s ice hockey team completed its regular season sweep of Minnesota with a 6-2, 4-2 win Friday and Saturday at OSU Ice Rink. With the wins, the Buckeyes improved to 24-2-2 overall with a mark of 19-2-1 in WCHA play.

In both games against the Mavericks, Ohio State scored 189 shots with 97 on goal, collected 56 tackles on point and goaltenders Quinn Koontz (15) and Amanda Thiele (22) to make 37 saves.

The Buckeyes had 15 players contribute points to the winning effort: Madison Bezzal, Gene Gardiner, Paytene Levis, Sophie Jack, Brock Pink, Gina Buglione, Hadley Hartmitz, Sloane Matthews, McKenna Webster, Riley Bringman, Emma Peschel, Sophie Lundy and Lauren Bernard . , Emma Maltice and Thiele (via Help).

Looking ahead, Ohio State has only six regular season games left in 2022-23. The team will travel to Minneapolis this weekend to take on No. 3 seed Minnesota. The Buckeyes will next host St. Thomas at the OSU Ice Rink February 10-11 before ending their season in Madison, Wisconsin, in a heavyweight battle with the Badgers in an 18- February 19th.

Swimming and diving

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams triumphed at the Notre Dame Tim Welch Classic in South Bend, Indiana, over the weekend, extending what was an exceptional start to the season for Ohio State’s aquatic programs.

The men’s team finished ranked No. 5 with 1,955.5 points — a 900-point win over the Fighting Irish — behind individual wins from Charlie Clark (1,000 freestyle), Ruslan Gaziev (100 freestyle), Billy Reagan (200 breaststroke), Alex Quach (200 fly), Clayton Chaplin (3-meter dive) and the relay victory of Thomas Navikonis, James Ward, Mario McDonald and Gazieff in the 400 freestyle.

Meanwhile, the No. 5-ranked women’s team earned 1,803 points, besting second-ranked Notre Dame by more than 900 points. Teams collected eight pool records at Rolfes Aquatic Center on Saturday and broke 20 pool records over the weekend.

Maya Geringer kicked off the women’s winning ways by claiming a singles win in the 1000 free with a pool record mark of 9:41.74. The previous record was set in 1990 by Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder in the 400, 800 and 1500 free. Amy Vollmer (200 points), Katherine Zenick (100 freestyle) and a relay team composed of Vollmer, Zenick, Tristan Harrison and Teresa Evan secured the victories for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State Swimming and Diving will conclude the regular season when the teams host the Ohio State Winter Invitational at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion from February 10-12.

Other news and notes

  • Caitlin Ebbin took home and won the air pistol, sporting pistol and standard pistol to help Ohio State score 6,763 and beat Army at the U.S. Merchant Naval Academy in West Point, New York, last weekend.

  • The Ohio State track and field team wrapped up competition at the Texas Tech Open, Malteas and Indiana Relays Saturday. 2021 Ohio State Player of the Year and US Olympian Adelaide Aquila made her season debut on the last putt, winning the event with a best throw of 17.89m.

  • Five Buckeyes wrestlers won championships Saturday at the 2023 Blue Raider Open as Brendan McCrone (125 pounds), Nic Bouzakis (133), Gavin Brown (157), Seth Shumate (184) and Luke Geog (197) all went undefeated on their way. to the titles at the Open event.

  • The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team played Robert Morris Saturday at the new Ohio State lacrosse stadium for a final scrimmage in preparation for the 2023 season. The Buckeyes opened their regular season campaign on February 4 against Air Force in Columbus.

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