Around The Oval: Three Buckeyes Qualify for the 2024 Olympics, Emily Ruck Tosses a No-Hitter for Ohio State Softball and Men's Tennis Continues Its Dominant Start to the Season

By Chase Brown on February 12, 2024 at 1:15 pm
Nikki Dzurko
Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
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Another week, another Around The Oval.

In this week's edition of Around The Oval, Eleven Warriors' one-stop shop for coverage of the Buckeyes' Olympic sports programs, we'll look at performances from former Ohio State swimmers and the current Ohio State softball and men's tennis teams.

Over the weekend, we also covered Ohio State wrestling's dominant win over Indiana and women's basketball's road win over Michigan State to take an outright lead in the Big Ten standings.

Let's take a stroll around The Oval, Ohio State’s 11-acre lawn at the heart of campus.

Next Stop: Paris

Three Buckeyes qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics last week: Nikki Dzurko and Ruby Remati of synchronized swimming and Lena Hentschel of swim and dive.

Dzurko and Remati will compete with Team USA artistic swimming at the Summer Olympics, and their performance at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, helped the United States make it to Paris.

Team USA needed to finish in the top five after aggregating acrobatic, technical and free team scores. Dzurko earned a bronze medal for her performance on the acrobatic team, while Remati competed in the technical routine that took fourth place. Both swimmers contributed to the free routine that also earned a bronze medal, which clinched an Olympic spot for the Americans for the first time since 2008.

In addition to her qualification with Team USA, Remati also earned an Olympics spot in the duet category at the Pan American Games last fall by winning a silver medal at the event.

Remati previously served as a duet alternate at the 2020 Olympics. She and Dzurko are the 15th and 16th Olympians in Ohio State synchronized swimming history.

Hentschel will represent Team Germany in the 3-meter synchronized dive and the 3-meter springboard in the Summer Games. She secured her spot with a sixth-place finish in both events at the World Aquatics Championships.

An Ohio State sophomore from Berlin, Hentschel and her diving partner Jette Muller turned in an aggregate score of 273.93 in the 3-meter synchronized dive in Doha. Hentschel also placed sixth on the 3-meter springboard with a total score of 289.95. 

Hentschel won bronze in the 3-meter synchronized dive at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She is the eighth Olympic diver in Ohio State's women's swimming and diving program history.

Softball

While Allison Smith is Ohio State softball's ace, Emily Ruck pitched like one on Saturday.

After Ruck tossed a no-hitter against UMass in 2022 and a perfect game against Canisius in 2023, the Westerville, Ohio, native collected her third career no-no in Ohio State's 9-0 win over Stony Brook on Saturday.

Ruck finished second behind Smith in innings pitched (110.2), wins (10), strikeouts (70) and ERA (3.98) during the 2023 season. For her career, Ruck has made 53 appearances and 32 starts for the Buckeyes, collecting over 180 innings on the mound and a 16-11 record. She has also recorded 141 strikeouts and has a 3.69 ERA.

Smith and Ruck have both had successful starts to the 2024 season. The former has a 3-0 record with 20 strikeouts and three runs allowed, while the latter has a 1-1 record with nine strikeouts and three runs allowed. The Buckeyes capitalized on that one-two punch in their first five games and returned to Columbus with a 4-1 record following their trip to Miami for the Felsberg Invitational.

This weekend, Ohio State softball will return to The Sunshine State for “The Spring Games” in Leesburg. The Buckeyes will face Coastal Carolina and UC Riverside on Friday, Kansas and Liberty on Saturday and Southern Illinois on Sunday.

Men's Tennis

Ohio State men's tennis and an indoor tennis court. It's a match made in heaven.

After dominant wins over No. 3 Virginia (7-0) and No. 13 Wake Forest (6-1) at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center last weekend, Ohio State welcomed No. 4 South Carolina to Columbus on Sunday. Like the Cavaliers and Demon Deacons before them, the Gamecocks didn't stand a chance, as the Buckeyes defeated them 6-1 in their home venue.

Singles

  1. No. 67 Cannon Kingsley def. No. 50 Toby Samuel (SC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
  2. No. 25 Justin Boulais def. Casey Hoole (SC) 6-0, 6-4
  3. No. 7 JJ Tracy def. James Story (SC) 6-1, 6-4
  4. No. 13 Jack Anthrop def. No. 76 Jelani Sarr (SC) 7-6 (7-3), 6-0
  5. Robert Cash def. L. Andrade de Silva (SC) 6-1, 6-2
  6. No. 86 Alexander Bernard def. Sean Daryabeigi (SC) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles

  1. Toby Samuel and Casey Hoole (SC) def. Justin Boulais and Andrew Lutschaunig 6-4
  2. L. Andrade de Silva and James Story (SC) def. Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy 6-3
  3. No. 35 Robert Cash and Bryce Nakashima def. Jelani Sarr and Carter Morgan (SC) 6-2

This weekend, Ohio State will travel to the ITA Men's Indoor National Championships at Columbia University. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center – home of the US Open Tennis Championships – will host the matches. The Buckeyes won the ITA Indoor National Championships in 2014 and 2019. They will enter the 2024 event as the likely No. 1 overall seed and will receive their bracket on Tuesday.

Other Results

  • Ohio State women's tennis competed at the ITA Women's Indoor National Championships in Seattle. The Buckeyes beat No. 7 Georgia in the first round but fell to No. 2 Stanford in the quarterfinals. They also lost their consolation match to No. 6 Texas.
  • Ohio State women's hockey swept Minnesota State in Mankato, Minnesota, over the weekend. The No. 1-ranked Buckeyes improved to 26-2 on the season and have won 13 consecutive games. They will host St. Thomas at the OSU Ice Rink on Friday and Saturday.
  • Ohio State men's volleyball defeated No. 14 Lewis, 3-0, on Wednesday but fell to No. 13 Loyola Chicago in five sets on Sunday. The Buckeyes are 8-3 this season. Since Ohio State reached No. 1 in the AVCA Coaches Poll, it has a 2-3 record with wins over Lindenwood and Lewis and losses to Penn State (twice) and Loyola Chicago. The Buckeyes will face Quincy University on Friday and Saturday.
  • Ohio State men's golf is in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, for the Puerto Rico Classic. The team is coming off a first-place finish at the Southwestern Invitational at North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Neal Shipley took first place in that event, shooting 12-under in the 54-hole competition.
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