Trio Earn Four Top-10 Finishes to Cap OSU Invite

Saturday, November 17

Columbus, Ohio

10:00 a.m.

West Virginia University

Ohio State Invitational (Swimming)

Photo by: Liz Parke

November 17, 2018 09:18 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

Complete OSU Invite Results Saturday Finals Results

By: Charlie Healy

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Three West Virginia University swimmers earned four top-10 finishes to highlight the final day of the Ohio State Invitational in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.

Sophomore David Dixon led the way with a runner-up finish in the 200 butterfly and a 10th-place finish in the 200 breaststroke. He was joined by junior Trayton Saladin, who finished seventh overall in the 200 backstroke, and junior Morgan Bullock, who placed 10th in the 200 butterfly.

"We had a really great finish to our meet," WVU coach Vic Riggs said. "We swam extremely well this morning, led off by Trayton (Saladin's) 200 back. From there, everyone did the job to get second swims. Before finals, our milers had exceptionally good split swims. Then, in finals, we had some really solid swims with Alex (Pampalone) Angelo (Russo), Josh (Harlan) and Trayton leading the way. Julia (Nilton) and Merwane (El Merini) continued to lead our sprint freestylers. In the breast, Marah (Bieger) and Lauren (Beckish) had solid swims to improve from the morning, and our men all had very strong swims, led by Tristen (Di Sibio). Our fliers did a great job with Kayla (Gagnon) and Reka (Kovaca) improving their times along with Morgan (Bullock) finishing 10th. On the men's side, David (Dixon) had an exciting swim to finish second, and Jack (Frazier) and Denys (Kostromin) both had great drops from their morning. We're definitely ahead of where we were last year, and it's good to see the results of their hard work."

WVU's four A finalists on the third and final day of competition at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion came after West Virginia had two A finalists on Thursday and four on Friday in a highly-competitive field at the Ohio State Invitational.

Prior to Saturday evening's finals was the 1,650 freestyle, where the Mountaineer men earned a pair of top-20 finishes. Freshman Tom Hubbard placed 17th overall, with a 16:01.47, while Saladin was right behind him in 18th in 16:01.84. For the women, freshman Lauryn Kallay led the way with a 16:55.22 to finish 26th overall, and junior Alex Pampalone was 35th with a time of 17:07.79.

The finals began with the 200 backstroke, where Saladin's seventh-place finish (1:46.66) led the way. Five more men earned second swims in the event, as freshman Josh Harlan (1:49.40) placed second in the C final and 22nd overall. Sophomore Christopher O'Shea (1:52.59) and freshman Josh Madzy (1:53.37) also swam in the C final and finished 29th and 30th overall, respectively. Sophomore Angelo Russo (1:48.10) touched the wall first in the D final and finished 31st overall, while junior Austin Hartke (1:52.54), placed 36th. In the women's 200 backstroke, sophomore Ally VanNetta touched the wall in 20th place overall with a 2:00.20 in the B final, and Pampalone was 28th with a 2:01.36 in the C final.

The next event was the 100 freestyle, and senior Merwane El Merini led the Mountaineer men to finish 13th overall and third in the B final with a time of 44:29. WVU had three in the C final, as junior Sam Neaveill (45.05) finished second in the final and 22nd overall, 0.02 seconds ahead of senior Drew Damich (45:07), who was 23rd overall and third in the final. Sophomore Max Gustafson placed 27th overall with a 45:62, and Hartke touched the wall in 46:61 in the D final to finish 40th overall.

For the women in the 100 freestyle, junior Julia Nilton raced in the B final and finished 17th overall with a 50.54. Sophomore Giselle Gursoy added a 29th-place finish with a 51.24 in the C final, while Kallay's 52.25 in the D final was 40th.

Ten Mountaineers earned finals appearances in the 200 breaststroke. The event was headlined by Dixon in the A final, who finished 10th with a 2:01.76. Redshirt senior Tristen Di Sibio added a B final victory to place 11th overall with a 1:59.51. In the C final, freshman Fausto Huerta (2:04.48) finished 27th overall and sophomore Philip Kay (2:04.95) was 29th. Four men made the D final, led by junior Jack Portmann (2:05.09) who finished third in the race and 33rd overall. Harlan (2:05.55) was just behind him in 34th, followed by senior Jake Armstrong (2:05.69) in 35th and sophomore Ben Brooks (2:05.85) in 36th.

In the women's 200 breaststroke, senior Marah Bieger and freshman Lauren Beckish raced in the D final. Bieger finished 35th overall with a time of 2:25.30, and Beckish was 40th with a 2:29.37.

Dixon and Bullock's appearance in the A final led the way for West Virginia in the 200 butterfly. Dixon's 1:42.90 was good for second place in the A final for the men, and Bullock was 10th for the women with a 1:59.27. Dixon's time came just 0.05 seconds shy of WVU's second win of the weekend. Junior Jack Frazier and sophomore Denys Kostromin finished 2nd and 3rd in the men's C final, and 22nd and 23rd overall, with times of 1:50.16 and 1:50.74, respectively. In the women's event, freshman Reka Kovacs touched the wall in 2:02.58 to place 2nd in the C final and 22nd overall and sophomore Kayla Gagnon was 35th overall with a 2:07.47 in the D final.

The day, and the OSU Invite, concluded with the 400 freestyle relay. The West Virginia men posted a seventh-place finish, as El Merini, Neaveill, Damich and Dixon touched the wall in 2:58.53. The WVU men also placed 19th, in 3:04.30 and 21st (3:06.58). The WVU women finished 13th (3:24.44), courtesy of Bullock, Nilton, Gursoy and Kallay, and 19th (3:29.66).

As a team, the WVU men finished sixth overall with 959 points, and the women placed eighth with 532.5 points. The Mountaineer men competed against No. 11 Ohio State, No. 21 Notre Dame, No. 23 Kentucky, Kenyon, Penn State, Pitt and Yale, while the women's team swam against No. 3 Stanford, No. 14 Notre Dame, No. 17 Kentucky, No. 23 Ohio State, Indiana State, Kenyon, Ohio, Penn State, Pitt and Yale.

Up next, West Virginia returns to action at the Backyard Brawl against Pitt on Saturday, Jan. 5, at 11 a.m. ET, in Pittsburgh.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUSwimDive on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.