Around the Oval: Ohio State Men's Lacrosse Downs No. 6 Rutgers, Lyle Yost is the NCAA Champion for the 1-Meter Dive and Men's Tennis Takes Down Two Top-25 Opponents

By Chase Brown on March 27, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Ohio State Men's Lax
Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
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Ohio State's Olympic sports continue to shine this spring.

In this edition of Around the Oval, Eleven Warriors’ one-stop shop for coverage of Ohio State's non-revenue sports, we offer rundowns for men's lacrosse, men's swim and dive, men's tennis, softball and several other programs.

Over the weekend, we also covered women's basketball's historic 73-61 win over UConn, men's hockey's dominant 8-1 win over Harvard and 4-1 loss to Quinnipiac and synchronized swimming's second consecutive title and 34th national championship overall.

Men's Lacrosse

Ohio State men's lacrosse stunned Rutgers, 11-7, under the lights on Sunday as a crowd of fans and alums packed inside the Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium created the best environment of the season for Nick Myers' squad.

The No. 17 Buckeyes needed an almost-perfect performance to defeat the No. 6 Scarlet Knights over the weekend, and that's exactly what they produced. Nine Ohio State players earned a point in the four-goal win, and the Buckeyes held Rutgers to a season-low seven goals in the contest.

Freshman Dillon Magee was the first to score for the Buckeyes at the 13:45 mark of the first quarter. Rutgers answered less than 51 seconds later, but Ohio State's Mitchell Pehlke didn't let the score remain tied for very long, as the veteran attacker rifled a shot into the net and put the Buckeyes up 2-1.

From there, Ohio State and Rutgers traded back-and-forth blows. However, the Buckeyes never relinquished control of the contest to the Scarlet Knights as Colby Smith scored four times and Jack Myers, Blake Eiland, Jason Knox, Justin Sherrer and Kyle Borda each scored once to propel the Buckeyes to the 11-7 win.

Ohio State men's swim and dive took 11th place at the NCAA Championships over the weekend, but the team's performance was not without noteworthy achievements.

On the championships' second day, Lyle Yost became the first Buckeye since Patrick Jeffrey in 1998 to win an NCAA title on the 1-meter board. He became the first member of Ohio State's swim and dive team to win a national event since Colin Zeng took home an individual championship for platform dive in 2016.

Yost was the top qualifier in the finals round and led the event after each of its six dives. He scored a 443.95 overall, good for a four-point lead over second-place finisher Andrew Capobianco of Indiana.

While Yost was the only Buckeye to take home top honors at the NCAA Championships, plenty of his teammates also earned distinguished accolades for their performances at the event. Ruslan Gaziev placed fourth in the 100 free with a program-record 40.98-second race, while Charlie Clark took sixth in the 1650 free with a time of 14:41.43 and Clayton Chaplin finished sixth in the platform dive with a score of 393.55.

Overall, Ohio State swim and dive had 10 members earn All-American status at the event. Yost, Gaziev, Clark and Chaplin all received first-team honors, while six other Buckeyes were awarded honorable mention recognition. Here is a complete list of the All-American accolades Ohio State received (*denotes honorable mention):

  • Daniel Baltes – 200 free relay*, 400 free relay*
  • Clayton Chaplin – Platform, 3-meter*
  • Charlie Clark – 1650 free
  • Ruslan Gaziev – 100 free, 50 free*, 200 free*, 200 medley relay*, 200 free relay*, 400 free relay*
  • Karl Helmuth – 200 medley relay*
  • Jack Matthews – 1-meter*, 3-meter*
  • Mario McDonald – 200 free relay*, 400 free relay*
  • Alex Quach – 200 medley relay*
  • James Ward – 200 medley relay*, 200 free relay*, 400 free relay*
  • Lyle Yost – 1-meter, 3-meter, platform

Ohio State's 11th-place finish (112 points) at the NCAA Championships was the second-best of any Big Ten program behind Indiana (379). The Hoosiers took fourth place at the event, as California-Berkeley finished in first (482), Arizona State in second (430) and Texas in third (384). NC State rounded out the top-five teams with a score of 373.5.

Men's Tennis

Ohio State men's tennis notched two top-25 wins against Big Ten opponents this past weekend – a 4-1 victory over No. 23 Northwestern on Friday and a 4-0 sweep of No. 21 Illinois on Sunday –  as the program improved to 19-2 overall this season with a 3-0 mark in conference competition.

According to an Ohio State men's tennis spokesperson, this is the seventh consecutive season the Buckeyes have swept the Northwestern/Illinois regular-season weekend. Pair that with the team's performances in matchups with other top programs from the conference, and it's easy to see why Ty Tucker's program has collected 16 consecutive Big Ten regular-season titles and 12 Big Ten Tournament championships dating back to 2006.

This week, Ohio State will face two more Big Ten foes. The Buckeyes will first welcome Nebraska into the Ty Tucker Tennis Center at 6 p.m. on Friday. Two days later, they will host Wisconsin in the same venue, with matches set to start at noon on Sunday.

Softball

Ohio State softball split a doubleheader with Michigan over the weekend, losing the first contest, 3-1, in 10 innings and winning the second, 11-2, in five innings. The Buckeyes and Wolverines played the games in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Buckeye Field, with lines to enter the stadium extending to Bill Davis Stadium before first pitch.

In Game 1, Allison Smith recorded her sixth start with 10 or more strikeouts as part of a 10-inning outing. She did not walk a batter in the contest but allowed three earned runs and a solo home run that put the Wolverines on the board in the third. Michigan's final two runs crossed home plate in the 10th as part of a two-RBI single from Melina Livingston. Ohio State failed to answer in the bottom half of the inning, allowing the maize and blue to claim the first leg of the doubleheader, 3-1.

In Game 2, Ohio State's bats came alive. Kami Kortokrax reached base on an error in the bottom of the first, and Meggie Otto knocked her in with a single. Sam Hackenbracht then delivered a three-run homer to deep left field, putting the Buckeyes up 4-0.

Michigan scored twice in the third, but it was all Ohio State from that point forward. The Buckeyes received contributions from several players to put the Wolverines away, including an RBI double from McKenzie Bump, a two-run home run from Otte and a two-RBI triple from Kaitlyn Farley. Emily Ruck also pitched a gem for the Buckeyes, scattering six hits across five innings of work. She also struck out two batters and allowed no walks to Michigan's batters.

  • The No. 7 Ohio State women's tennis team has recorded four consecutive sweeps, defeating Wisconsin (7-0), Minnesota (4-0), Purdue (4-0) and Northwestern (4-0) over the past two weeks. The Buckeyes are now 12-5 overall this season with a perfect 5-0 mark in Big Ten competition.
  • After No. 15 Ohio State men's volleyball took down No. 1 Penn State on the road last week, the Buckeyes made quick work of their next two opponents, knocking off Lindenwood, 3-1, and Quincy, 3-0, on Friday and Saturday to improve their record to 15-9 overall and 7-3 in MIVA play this season.
  • The Ohio State fencing team finished fifth at the 2023 NCAA Fencing Championships over the weekend. Three Buckeye women earned All-America honors at the event, with Julieta Toledo and Dasha Myroniuk receiving second-team recognition and Yeva Mazur receiving an honorable mention selection. Four Buckeye men also received All-American awards – Paul Veltrup and Jack Price with first-team accolades and Edriss Ndiaye and Diego Cervantes as honorable mentions.
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