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Mountaineers Fall Short at OSU
January 30, 2016 08:46 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s swimming and diving team suffered a 153-90 setback to Ohio State, while the men’s team suffered losses to Michigan, Buffalo and Ohio State on Saturday, at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on the campus of OSU in Columbus, Ohio.
The men suffered a tough loss to the Bulls, 176-136, while suffering a 220-77 setback to the Wolverines and a 241-58 loss to the Buckeyes.
“Today I put the teams in a difficult position, and I feel that they responded to it well,” said coach Vic Riggs. “For the women, we took a different approach and raced one or two events to take the mental approach of preparing for those events for Big 12’s. The men just weren’t as sharp as they needed to be in order to beat Buffalo. However, both teams competed very hard. We had several people swim faster than last night. Today’s situation will definitely help us prepare for the third day of the Big 12’s, and that was the goal.”
Senior Andrew Marsh led the Mountaineers with a third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, touching the wall in 48.86In the men’s 200 IM, junior Nate Carr posted a fourth-place finish with a time of 1:49.95.
Senior Max Spencer placed fourth in the men’s 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:01.18, improving on his time from Friday’s meet against Villanova by .43.
Spencer touched the wall in 56.10 to place sixth in the 100 breaststroke. The men’s 400 freestyle relay team included Marsh, senior Ross Glegg, freshman Merwane Elmerini and Carr swam to a sixth-place finish to touch the wall in 3:03.52.
In the diving competition, the WVU men’s squad posted a trio of top-five finishes, as Austin Smith finished fourth on the 1-meter with a score of 251.20. Sophomore Michael Proietto placed fifth (245.90) and senior Alex Obendorf grabbed sixth (245.05).
Obendorf also placed fifth on the 3-meter board with a score of 281.70, while Proietto placed sixth with a score of 279.30.
On the women’s side, the Mountaineers claimed first-and second-place finishes in the women’s 200 breaststroke. Freshman Emma Harris took the victory, touching the wall in 2:22.04, and sophomore Loren Williams came in second (2:27.82).
Junior Emma Skelley placed fourth, in the women’s 200 freestyle, touching the wall in 1:57.16 Senior Kelsey Frantz also competed in the event and touched the wall sixth with a time of 1:58.58.
The Mountaineers’ 200-yard medley relay team of seniors Courtney Miller and Jaimee Gillmore, sophomore Amelie Currat and Harris picked up a sixth-place finish with a time of 1:47.56.
Gillmore and Currat were joined by freshman Sydnee Karam and sophomore Mia Fiorenzi in the 400 freestyle relay, touching the wall in 3:36.49 for sixth place.
Next up, the West Virginia divers will compete at the James Madison Diving Invite on Saturday Feb. 6, at 9 a.m. The Mountaineers then have three weeks off from competition before they compete for the Big 12 title at the 2016 Big 12 Championship, Feb. 24-27, in Austin Texas.
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