The Eastern Michigan University and Ohio State University swimming and diving teams squared off in a matchup of unbeaten teams Saturday afternoon, where Buckeyes claimed both wins over EMU, beating the men 203.5-96.5 and the women 175-113.
Eastern Michigan and Ohio State hadn’t met in a dual since 2008, but the Eagles have participated in the Ohio State invitational the last three years and will return to Columbus, Ohio later in the season for the fourth straight year. Ohio State’s men finished last season ranked No. 8 in the country while the women were No. 22.
“I told them we have the opportunity to swim against some of the better swimmers in the country,” said EMU head coach Peter Linn. “We wanted to race them.”
Eastern Michigan’s men came up with three first place finishes in the loss. Andrew Henry won the 200-yard freestyle (1:38.96), and Chris Hodges won the 200-yard breaststroke (2:05.03).
EMU’s Dylan Crompton had a personal best last week in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.17 against Oakland; he looked to beat that time this week but came up just shy, having placed in first with a time of 21.20 against the Buckeyes.
“He’s been really having a great year, and has had put up some great times” said Linn. “He’s been improving almost every meet.”
Ohio State’s women started the meet out hot, and showed no signs of slowing down. The Buckeyes 200-yard medley relay team won its heat to get the Buckeyes the first points of the dual, and the OSU 1000-yard freestyle swimmers swept the heat earning 16 points for OSU. The Buckeyes had claimed first place in the first 11 events of the dual.
Eastern Michigan’s Grace Van Allen, the defending MAC Swimmer of the week, was the first woman to get a first place finish for the Eagles. Van Allen had a time of 5:05.82 in the 500-yard freestyle.
“I think she was disappointed a little bit with some of her times,” said Linn. “I think she responded really well and fixed a lot of the things she wanted to work on and got her hand on the wall.”
Late in the meet EMU spouted a short comeback by sweeping all the points in the 500-yard freestyle, the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley, accounting for 48 of the 113 points for Eastern Michigan.
Eastern Michigan’s men are now 2-1 this season, while the women are now 3-1. The teams have some time off before they take the pool again, as they will return back to Jones Natatorium, on Dec. 4 and 5 for the EMU invitational.
