Ohio State Invitational: Day Two

COLUMBUS, Ohio, December 6. OHIO State remains in fourth place out of 15 teams after the second day of competition at the 2008 Ohio State Swimming and Diving Invite. The Buckeyes, under the direction of coach Bill Dorenkott, have 284 points. Minnesota, which won the 2008 Big Ten championship in the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion eight months ago, continues to lead the field with 863 points. Penn State is second with 572 points and Notre Dame is third with 354 points.

Samantha Cheverton was the star of the day for the Buckeyes, setting new school records in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100 backstroke.

Dorenkott, who guided the Penn State women to three Big Ten championships in his last seven years as its coach, was hoping for a better overall performance from his team on Saturday, but he explained that he did not set his team up to challenge for this title. Instead, he wanted to use this meet as a gauge to see how well the team would perform under difficult circumstances.

"In fairness to the swimmers, I wanted to see how tough they would compete with less than ideal preparation," Dorenkott said. "For us to be successful at the Big Ten championships, and ultimately at the NCAA championships, we need to be good at less-than-our-best. Excellence has inertia even after you stop fueling it."

One can look no further than Dorenkott's former team – Penn State – to see the truth in his words. The Nittany Lions aren't going to defeat the juggernaut Golden Gopher team at this meet (Minnesota swimmers have won 12 of 13 races so far), but they are solidly in second place after a day in which 14 Nittany Lions were finalists and another five were in consolation races, and thus scored points for their team.

Even with a new coach – Penn State tapped one of Dorenkott's former assistants and swimmers – there is a 13-year Dorenkott-built mindset in the program that just doesn't go away as soon as the coach is gone. And it's that kind of mindset that Dorenkott is working on at Ohio State.

"Our season will be defined in the next four weeks," Dorenkott said. "Once we figure out our identity and our vision, we can go about the task of deciding where we want to go."

Cheverton, a Lachine, Quebec native, broke Gulsah Gunenc's school record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.78 and she broke Amanda Treleaven's record in the 100 backstroke in a time of 55.31. She placed ninth in both races.

"It motivates me when I see someone off to my side," Cheverton, who came from behind to win the 100 butterfly, said. "It was my first time ever swimming under 55 seconds and I am just really happy with the race."

Junior Colleen Schweitzer was the team's highest placing finisher Saturday. The Highlands Ranch, Colo., native made the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke and finished seventh in a time of 1:04.62. Freshman Catherine Eitel and junior Megan Alexander also scored in the event with 14th- and 15th-place finishes, respectively.

Three Buckeyes scored points in the 400 individual medley: Sophomore Katelyn Brix was ninth in 4:24.22, junior Jill Lockhart was 11th in 4:25.37 and freshman Lisa Narum was 13th in 4:28.97.

Anita Beck scored in the 200 freestyle with an 11th-place effort in a time of 1:50.80 while Eitel was 14th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:06.09 and Lockhart was 16th in the 100 backstroke in 59.08.

Kristen Asman was 10th on the one-meter springboard with 259.6 points.

Ohio State also picked up points in both relays. Its 200 medley relay team of Cheverton, Eitel, Narum and Beck was ninth in 1:45.55. And its 800 freestyle relay team of Cheverton, Beck, Mitchell and Lockhart was fourth in 7:27.79.

For the men, the No. 11 Ohio State men's swimming and diving team, behind a mighty show of depth Saturday with 22 finalists in five individual events, continues to lead the 2008 Ohio State Swimming and Diving Invitational after the second day of events.

The Buckeyes have 906.5 points and lead Minnesota (596.50 points), Penn State (432), Notre Dame (243) and Cleveland State (181) in the 13-team field. Competition concludes Sunday with Ohio State in a position to capture its own invite for the first time. The Golden Gophers have won the first three Ohio State Swimming and Diving Invites.

"There will be lot of meets where we won't succeed at this level," Ohio State coach Bill Wadley said. "I am very pleased with the way the guys have swam. Hopefully we'll put together one more day of competing at a high level and then go into finals week next week really excited about this phase of our season."

Ohio State, utilizing its full complement of swimmers where the visiting teams could only bring a maximum of 24, produced twice the number of finalists than the next highest total (11 by Minnesota) and its 32 total point scorers in individual events Saturday also topped Minnesota and Penn State totals of 14 apiece.

"We've had outstanding depth all weekend and we hope it develops into quality outstanding depth," Wadley said. "We swam really well in the morning. Felipe Travesso broke a 10-year-old school record in the 100 breaststroke and that was really nice to see.

"Quincy Lee went under 48 seconds for the first time in the 100 butterfly and Andrew Olson just missed the school record in the 200 freestyle."

The evening session's individual events opened with the 400 individual medley, an event where Ohio State swimmers posted the four fastest preliminary times. Although a Golden Gopher won the event, Buckeyes finished second, third, fourth and fifth, led by Niksa Roki's NCAA "B" cut time of 3:49.66. He was followed by Austin Mudd (3:53.92), Michael Hulme (3:55.58) and Justin Farra (3:55.82).

Ohio State picked up its fourth individual event win of the Invitational when Andrew Bretscher won the 100 butterfly with a time 47.86. Other Buckeye finalists in the event included Lee (fourth in 48.55), Matthias Sigrist (seventh in 49.37) and Tyler King (eighth in 49.56). Four more Buckeyes scored in the consolation race for a total of eight scorers in the event.

Moments later Olson added to the Buckeyes' victory total by taking first in the 200 freestyle with an NCAA "B" qualifying time of 1:36.31. Jake Busch was fourth in 1:37.81. Just one-hundredth of a second separated Jason King and Lincoln Fahrbach, who scored points by finishing in 10th and 11th-place, respectively.

Travesso led a 2-3-4 Ohio State finish in the 100 breaststroke with another NCAA "B" qualifying time swim (53.95). Sam Pelkey (third in 54.91) and Daniel Malnick (fourth in 55.37) were other Buckeyes in the top five. Elliott Keefer, Spencer Hewes and Farra were also finalists.

Six more Buckeyes made the finals of the 100 backstroke and another three more were in the consolation finals for a total of nine scorers in the event. Itai Chammah placed second with a time of 49.09 and Roki was third in 49.22.

Ohio State's top 200-medley relay team of Chammah, Travesso, Lee and Elber took second with a time of 1:28.31. The team's 800 freestyle relay was second in an NCAA "B" time of 6:33.08. Making up the quartet were Matthias Sigrist, Olson, Bush and Markovic.

Ohio State placed three in the top eight of three-meter springboard event that was loaded with talent. Sean More was fourth with 403.65 points; Ryan Jefferson was sixth (374.15) and Burkley Showe finished eighth, but he was unable to compete in the finals due to an injury. This coming after he was second in the prelims. The event featured five NCAA All-Americans and two Olympians.

Special thanks to Ohio State for contributing this report.

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