With the women’s meet cancelled, it was up to the Ohio State and West Virginia men to battle it out for cross-border supremacy on Friday.
The home team Buckeyes came out on top by a final score of 170-120, with Ohio State exhibitioning most of their results for the last third of the meet.
Led by their outstand front-half, Ohio State won the meet-opening 400 medley relay by five-and-a-half seconds, swimming a 3:15.61 to West Virginia’s 3:21.10.
Steven Zimmerman (48.35), DJ MacDonald (55.04), Matt McHugh (48.28), and Josh Fleagle (43.94) combined on the victory, with Ohio State beating West Virginia on every leg of the relay.
That was the only swim of the day for Zimmerman, and one of only two for MacDonald (he won the individual 100 breaststroke in 55.55), but Fleagle starred on the day for the Buckeyes. Besides that relay anchor, Fleagle also won the individual 200 free in 1:37.74 (faster than he swam last week against Michigan State; and led off the winning Ohio State 200 free relay.
McHugh had a good meet as well, winning the individual 50 free in 20.53.
West Virginia’s three event wins (out of 16) on Friday included two from Andrew Marsh, who won the 100 back (48.97) and 100 fly (49.68).
Max Spencer picked up the third win with a 2:02.70 in the men’s 200 breaststroke. The Mountaineers wound up 1-2 in that event, with Nate Carr placing 2nd
WVU head coach Vic Riggs was complimentary of his breaststrokers after the meet
“Max (Spencer) had some really solid breaststroke swims,” Riggs said. “Nate Carr swam three in season-best times as well. This was an excellent opportunity for us to race a very good OSU team. I felt we did a great job of racing against them, which I believe will helps us race at Big 12s.
“Both relays had significant drops from the fall and overall we had 23 in season-best times.”
Carr swam a 1:49.85 in the 200 IM to place 2nd behind Ching Lim (1:48.57); a 1:40.07 in the 200 free; and a 2:03.23 in the 200 breast.
Ohio State races Indiana and Louisville in a tri meet on Saturday, while the West Virgina men are done until the Big 12 Championships in just under a month.