2011-2012 College Swimming Previews: No. 11 Ohio State Men Look Strong Despite Phillips Redshirt

The summer of 2011 will feature a huge meet in the FINA World Championships, but that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to begin looking at the 2012 NCAA season. Over the next few months, we will count down the top 12 teams from last year’s NCAA Championships, along with a few teams that we expect to break through, until we finish with the two defending National Champions from Berkeley. To keep track of all of our season previews, we’ve added a link in the menu bar, just click “College Previews” at the top of the page.

Key Losses: Elliott Keefer (4 NCAA Points, 2 Relays), Justin Farra (2 NCAA Points), Quincy Lee (3 NCAA Points, 1 Relay)

Key Additions: Tamas Gerczak (Fly/Breast/IM), Stephen Zimmerman (Free/Back/IM), Keanu Stevenson (Sprint Free/Breasst), Connor McDonald (back), Jared Kauffman (Breast/IM), Michael Meldon (Sprint free/Back)

2011 Overview: After the high of winning the 2010 Big Ten Championship, Ohio State was down a little bit in 2011. They finished 3rd at Big Tens (behind Michigan and a surprising Indiana team), though a strong core still led them to a respectable 11th-place finish at NCAA’s. That was a young Ohio State squad, however, and this year’s team will be more mature and ready to contend again for the Big Ten title.

Lost Leaders: When considering who Ohio State had lost, I expected the numbers to be much more damaging. But then, as I started working through the list,  I realized that from a scoring perspective, not a whole lot was going out the door. In total, they are losing only 9 (out of 115) NCAA Points, and only three relay spots.

But more valuable than these losses in terms of points are the losses in terms of leadership. Elliott Keefer was a great “locker room” type, and though individually he didn’t have a great NCAA Championship meet – he added over a second in the 200 breaststroke to place 20th – the value of losing a USA World Championship team member cannot be overestimated.

In Quincy Lee, they lost one of the team’s hardest workers who as a junior earned the “Most Improved Award.” In fact, he improved so much, that he graduated as the school record holder in the 200 fly, and the 2nd-best performer of all time in the 100 fly (behind Tim Phillips). He was also a part of the 200 medley relay that finished 7th at NCAA’s and also broke the school record.

But when it comes down to it, the points are not irreplaceable, and luckily for Ohio State, there’s plenty of great, experienced vets to step in and take over those roles.

Phillips Phlies…the Coup: Tim Phillips will be the big name on the team this year. Individually at NCAA’s, he swam only one race, the 100 fly, where he finished 5th in a school record 45.90. He scratched his other two individual races to focus on his four relay swims, which proved to be a key for the Buckeyes. Though Phillips is best known for his exploits in the butterfly races (he’s a USA Swimming National Teamer in the 100 fly as only a teenager), his freestyle abilities are equally impressive (and important) at the NCAA level.

He anchored their 200 free relay with the squad’s fastest split (19.03/18.99 in prelims). He was also huge in the 400 (43.34 lead off), and had the fastest split on their 800 free relay (1:35.38 lead off). His only disappointing relay swim was probably the 400 medley, where in the final he swam a 46.13 coming off of a 45.13 in prelims, but that was still good enough to give the Buckeyes their highest relay finish in 5th-place.

Phillips has already had some awesome long course swims this summer; without his taper kicking in, he’s ranked 20th in the world in the 100 fly this year.

It looks like Tim Phillips will be redshirting this year to train for the Olympics, and working with David Marsh down at SwimMAC Carolina. While this means he’ll likely return as one of the best swimmers in the country in two years, this hurts the Buckeyes this season. That means they’ll lose their two best 100 butterfliers from a season ago. Keeping the spot on the medleys warm until Phillips’ return will be Aussie Junior Luke Stirton (47.85) or Lincoln Fahrbach (48.05).

And the Elliott Stands Alone: One bright-side of Elliott Keefer’s graduation is that it will eliminate one of the most confusing name-duplicities in the country. That’s because Ohio State’s top backstroke is named Andrew Elliott. The senior-to-be had some off swims at NCAA’s to finish 18th and 17th in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, respectively, but still finished the season with top-11 times in both races. If he is able to turn things around for a stronger finish in 2012, he could provide an immediate 25-point boost (or better) to the Buckeyes’ scoring. He also becomes very important for the medley relays, after Keefer’s graduation leaves them with a bit of a hole on the breaststrokes.

Sprinters:If Ohio State wants to move up the national rankings, they need to squeeze a few more points out of their sprinters. Last year, their 200 and 400 free relays finished 11th and 12th, respectively. With all four members of both relays returning, they definitely have A-final potential this season, led by Phillips as discussed. Senior Lincoln Fahrbach had great relay swims last year at NCAA’s, bottoming out at 19.36/42.86 relay splits in the 50/100 free, respectively.  Junior Jason Schnur should be equally impressive. This Ohio State relay next year has the potential to be one of the few in the country capable of getting all four swimmers under 43 seconds at NCAA’s in the 400 free relay.

Breaststrokers: With the graduations of Farra and Keefer, the Buckeyes will lose their two best breaststrokers from last year. This is definitely going to be their area of biggest need next season. Their top returning swimmer will be Dak Stone, who was 22nd at Big Ten’s last year in the 100 (56.01) and 19th in the 200 (2:00.70). Odds are that any number of their talented freshman breaststrokers will be serious challengers to take over as the Buckeyes’ 1-A breaststrokers.

Freshman Breaststrokers: This is a freshman class that has Ohio State coach Bill Wadley, the recipient of a new three-year contract extension to keep him in Columbus through 2014, extremely excited.

“I thinking our incoming group may be one of the brightest and most talented [group of] young men [we’ve ever had], and I am thrilled about them and can’t wait to have them on campus,” Wadley said.

The biggest recruit perhaps was when he pulled of a huge coup and grabbed Hungarian Tamas Gercsak. This was not an upset because Ohio State is not worthy of top 10 recruits; rather by the fact that both of his older brothers (Balazs and Csaba) swam at the University of Florida. Gersak is improving by leaps-and-bounds, and already has his long course 200 fly down to 2:00.09 and long course breaststroke down to 2:17.32. He also has the potential to make a big impact as an IM’er.

In the sprint breaststrokes, the Buckeyes will bring in a pair of lethal swimmers in Keanu Stevenson and Jared Kauffman. Stevenson was this year’s Indiana State Champion in the 100 breaststroke in 54.92, which missed the state record by just a tenth. Kauffman will come in behind him with a 55.8, though they are about the same in the 200 (with 2:00.7 and 2:00.8 best times, respectively).

Stevenson, in the least, should be an individual qualifier in the 100 for NCAA’s his freshman season. Both Stevenson and Kauffman are also pretty good sprint freestylers, where they could both contribute later in their careers.

They add even more depth in Sean Johnson, a 56.2 100 breaststroker. By this time next year, I feel that we’ll be looking at breaststroke as one of the Buckeyes’ biggest strengths rather than a weakness.

Huge Class: All-in-all, the Buckeyes will bring in a huge, powerful freshman class of 14 that was ranked 5th in the country this year.

In addition to the breaststrokers mentioned above, there are a ton of great swimmers who will join the Buckeyes. When Elliott graduates, the Buckeyes won’t be left lacking in the backstroke department. Steven Zimmerman, an Ohio native, comes in with a 48.3 to ranks as the #6 100 backstroker in this class. He also swims a fantastic 200 IM (1:49.39).

Connor McDonald, imported from the Portland, Oregon area, is another phenomenal backstroker. He goes for a 48.78 in the 100, and is even better in the 200 with a career-best of 1:45.49. McDonald, based on his improvements, might be a hidden gem of this entire class; I’d expect him to be a future superstar.

The best sprinter of the group is Michael Meldon, another Ohio swimmer. He had a disappointing finish to his junior season, where he false started the 50 free at state. His senior year, however, he came back with authority to win double state-titles in the 50 and 100 freestyles with best times of 20.5/44.7. Depending on his development, he might even push the Ohio State group for a spot on one of those potentially-great free relays.

This freshman class is one of the type that builds top-5 programs. They filled basically every need they had (aside from maybe a top-flight middle-distance freestyler), and Wadley’s excitement is well-deserved.

Diving: Ohio State has shown the ability to compete on the boards, which is vital in the diving-rich Big Ten. Last year, freshman Christian Holstein fought through a shoulder injury to score a 16th-place finish in the final of the 1-meter, which made him the only freshman diver to score in that discipline (and one of only three in the whole meet). Another Buckeye freshman, Shane Miszkiel, narrowly missed an NCAA berth of his own, and should join Holstein their next year.

2011-2012 Outlook: After a 44 year drought, Ohio State won the Big Ten Championship in 2010. Though they backslid a touch last season, Bill Wadley is definitely building a perennial contender, with the support of one of the strongest Athletics Departments in the country. Losing Phillips is a game-changer for this team in a big way, as he costs them both individual points as well as a slew of relay points. They now go from a top-8 finish to a battle to move into the top 10. At the very least, this year should be an awesome three-team battle between Ohio State, Michigan, and Indiana, the latter two of whom were very young teams that should be even better this year as well.