Around The Oval: Ohio State Fencing Wins a CCFC Title, Women's Swim and Dive Barely Misses Out on Fifth-Straight Big Ten Crown and Women’s Hockey Splits Its Series With Wisconsin

By Chase Brown on February 26, 2024 at 1:05 pm
Ohio State men’s fencing
Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
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Another week, another Around The Oval.

In this week's edition of ATO – Eleven Warriors' one-stop shop for coverage of Ohio State's Olympic sports programs – we will look at performances from men's and women's fencing, women's swim and dive, women's ice hockey and more.

On Sunday, we covered women's basketball's win over Maryland to capture at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. The Buckeyes also claimed the No. 1 seed at the Big Ten Tournament, which will occur from March 6-10 at the Target Center in Minneapolis and sold out for the first time last week.

Without further ado, let's take a walk Around The Oval, Ohio State's 11-acre lawn at the heart of its Columbus campus.

Men's and Women's Fencing

The Ohio State men's fencing team won its fourth consecutive Central Collegiate Fencing Conference title on Saturday, while the women's team took second behind Northwestern. The men went 4-0 in the event, and the women went 5-1.

The Buckeye Men

Ohio State's men swept the team championships and went undefeated in all three weapons. The Buckeyes defeated Detroit Mercy, Cleveland State and Wayne State en route to its trio of titles.

In foil, Mitchell Huth went 5-0 while Solin Li, Edriss Ndiaye and Ilya Ayupov went 4-0. Paul Veltrup led Ohio State's epee squad with seven wins, followed by Ayush Shah with six and Gabriel Feinberg with five. Samuel Rightler paced the Buckeyes in saber with eight wins and Luca Fioretto picked up seven to rank second.

The men's team has captured the outright CCFC team title in all four seasons of the conference. The Buckeyes now have four foil, four epee and three saber trophies in the CCFC.

The Buckeye Women

Ohio State's women finished second to Northwestern, losing to the Wildcats 16-11 on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes topped Cleveland State, Lawrence, Detroit Mercy, Denison and Wayne State in their other matches.

Claire Teresa Galavotti and Dasha Myroniuk led foil with seven wins, while Aline Lee picked up six victories. The Buckeyes won their third straight title in the event. 

In epee, Karina Dyner had nine wins and Yeva Mazur posted eight. Ele Perrier and Arlow Wiggers each had eight wins in saber, while Katherine Larimer and Maria Alexee had seven.

NCAA action starts on March 9 with the Midwest Regional in Detroit. Ohio State will then host the 2024 NCAA Championships March 21-24 at French Field House and St. John Arena. Tickets are on sale for the event now and can be purchased here.

Women's Swim and Dive

Ohio State’s women’s swimming and diving team barely missed out on winning its fifth straight Big Ten title.

Indiana edged out Ohio State by just a half-point, 1,359 to 1,358.5, to steal the conference crown away from the Buckeyes. While Ohio State held the lead entering the 400 free relay, the final event of the competition, a second-place finish for the Hoosiers in that relay was just enough to push them ahead of Ohio State, who finished third in the final race.

Although the Buckeyes didn’t bring home a team trophy, their athletes brought home gold medals in seven individual events.

The Buckeyes started the meet strong as Nyah Funderburke, Hannah Bach, Katherine Zenick and Teresa Ivan set a Big Ten championship record with a time of 1:33.47 in the 200 medley relay, the event’s first competition on Wednesday.

Ohio State’s highlights on Thursday included a 1-2-3 finish in the 50-yard freestyle finals by Ivan (21.74), Amy Fulmer (21.79) and Zenick (21.81); a victory by Leah Hentschel (307.4) in 1-meter diving; and a win by Funderburke, Bach, Morgan Kraus and Fulmer (3:28.87) in the 400 medley relay.

Zenick earned her third gold medal of the championships in the 100-yard butterfly (51.47) while Bach earned her third gold of the meet in the 100-yard breaststroke (57.54) on Friday.

Fulmer won the Buckeyes’ final individual title of the event by earning her third gold medal of the week in the 100-yard freestyle (47.48) on Saturday.

The Buckeyes will return to action in their home pool on Sunday when they host their Last Chance Meet at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, giving their swimmers and divers who have not yet achieved NCAA standards one more chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will be held March 20-23 in Athens, Georgia.

Women's Hockey

After 16 consecutive wins, Ohio State women's hockey fell to Wisconsin on Saturday. The No. 1 Buckeyes (29-3-0, 26-2-0 WCHA) split their weekend series with the No. 2 Badgers (29-5-0, 23-5-0), winning 3-1 in Game 1 and losing 4-2 in Game 2.

Game 1

Ohio State allowed 19 shots on goal in the first period while recording two of its own. Thanks to a stellar performance from senior goaltender Raygan Kirk, who made all 19 saves, the Buckeyes and Badgers were tied 0-0 after 20 minutes.

Wisconsin's Maddi Wheeler scored the first goal of the game one minute into the second, but Ohio State roared back near the end of the frame, as two top-corner goals from Kiara Zanon and Makenna Webster gave the Buckeyes a 2-1 lead at the intermission. A Jenna Buglioni empty-net goal in the third was the dagger, and Ohio State won 3-1. Kirk finished the contest with 28 saves, her second-most this season.

Game 2

Like Ohio State on Friday, Wisconsin came from behind to win on Saturday. After two Kenzie Hauswirth goals in the first period put the Buckeyes up 2-0, the Badgers responded with four unanswered goals in the final two frames to secure a 4-2 victory.

Wisconsin forward Kasey O'Brien scored two goals – one in the second period and one in the third – to tie the game at 2-2. Laila Edwards gave the Badgers the lead with 8:45 left in the game and scored an empty-net goal in the final eight seconds to cap off the win.

Ohio State finished the 2023-24 regular season with its best overall record and best conference record in program history. The Buckeyes will return to Columbus this weekend and host No. 8 seed Bemidji State in the WCHA Tournament quarterfinals. The three-game series will occur on Friday, Saturday and, if needed, Sunday at the OSU Ice Rink. All matches will be streamed on BTN+.

Men's and Women's Track & Field

Ohio State track & field competed at the 2024 Big Ten Indoor Championships on Saturday at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. The Buckeye men finished fourth with 80.33 points and the Buckeye women took ninth with 38 points.

The men's side had two winners at the event. Mason Louis took first in the 400m with a personal-best time of 45.89 to move into sole possession of fourth in program history. Meanwhile, Hayden Tobias won the men's shot put with a season-best throw of 20.01m, becoming the second college athlete in the country to throw for 20 meters this season.

The 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships will occur on March 8 and 9 in Boston.

Other Results

  • Ohio State baseball split its series with Arizona State over the weekend, winning two games and losing two games. The Buckeyes defeated the Sun Devils on Thursday, 11-4, and Saturday, 13-4. They lost on Friday, 14-4, and Sunday in eight innings, 10-8. Ohio State is off to a 4-4 start this season and will compete at the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic this weekend.
  • After its final three games at The Spring Games were canceled, Ohio State softball competed at the Sun Devil Classic from Friday to Sunday. The Buckeyes fell to Texas State, 6-1, in Game 1 and Arizona State, 12-10, in extra innings in Game 2. However, the team ended Sunday with a 10-0 shutout of New Mexico State and a 5-2 win over Idaho State to come back to Columbus on a high note. Ohio State is off to an 8-4 start in 2024 and will compete at the Tennessee Invitational this weekend.
  • Ohio State men's lacrosse hit the road to face No. 3 Virginia over the weekend. The Buckeyes fell to the Cavaliers, 14-8. Ben Mayer led Ohio State with three points and two assists on the attack. Freshman goaltender Caleb Fyock made a career-high 17 saves. The Buckeyes are 4-1 this season with wins over Utah, Cleveland State, Bellarmine and Air Force. They will return to action this weekend at Cornell.
  • Ohio State synchronized swimming defeated Michigan and Minnesota with 103 team points at the North Regional Championships over the weekend. With the win, Ohio State advances to the U.S. Collegiate Championships (March 21-23) in Dallas, Texas, where the Buckeyes will face Arizona, Florida, UCLA, Stanford and more as the team attempts to win its 35th national title.
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