Oxford, Ohio hosted its sectional meet from Monday to Thursday this week, with the Ohio State Buckeyes making some big noise along with New York Athletic Club sprinter Josh Schneider.
Schneider put up the meet’s most notable time, blasting to a 22.19 to win the 50 free on opening night. That’s just .02 off of Schneider’s season-best, which ranks him 3rd among Americans for the year.
The other eye-popping time was from Ohio State’s rising junior DJ MacDonald in the 100 breast. MacDonald has been on a tear this summer, smashing his own personal best in early July and doing it again here. MacDonald went 1:01.16, taking a half-second off his PR from earlier this season. Consider that MacDonald hadn’t even been under 1:02 heading into this season. He’s having a lights-out summer so far, and is now knocking on the door of a 1:00.
On the women’s side, Ohio State was led by Lindsey Clary, swimming unattached, who won four races over the course of the week. Clary won the distance trio (400, 800 and 1500 free), topped off by the 400 IM to complete a 4-win meet. She won each race handily, going 4:52.35 in the IM and 4:19.39/8:52.19/16:55.83 in the distance freestyle races.
who won a pair of events over the course of the week. The German senior dipped under a minute in winning the 100 fly, putting up a 59.90 that won by two full seconds. She came back two days later to win the 100 free in 56.97.
Aliena Schmidtke, Halime Zulal Zeren, andTaylor Vargo also won twice for the Buckeyes on the women’s side, with Rowan Williams, Steffen Hillmer and Christopher Depietro doing so for the men.
Zulal Zeren and Williams swept the backstroke races. Zulal Zeren, from Turkey, went 2:14.98 to blow away the 200 back field on day 1, and she followed it up with a 1:03.22 win in the 100 back later on. Williams was 1:59.76 for a big win in the 200, plus 54.95 in the shorter distance.
Vargo won both breaststrokes for the women (2:34.95 and 1:11.31), while the German Schmidtke won the 100s of free and fly. Schmidtke dipped under a minute in winning the butterfly, putting up a 59.90 that won by two full seconds. She came back two days later to win the 100 free in 56.97.
Her fellow German Hillmer picked up the 100/200 free double for the Buckeye men. He flirted with the 1:50 barrier in the 200 free, but wound up going 1:50.78. Then in the 100 he cut almost exactly one minute off that time in going 50.72.
Depietro was the big IM winner of the weekend, taking both men’s races. The 400 saw him go 4:29.12. In the 200, he finished 9th in prelims, but scratched into the final and wound up winning, cutting almost 5 seconds off his morning time to go 2:05.94.
Full results are available on Meet Mobile under “2014 Central Zone Section 3 Championships.”
Josh is my great nephew and I try to keep up with everything he accomplishes. I have a binder with all the things he has done over the year. Congrat.JOsh.
Schneider is swimming fast
1:01.1 untapered and unshaved for a giy who has not been under 1:02 before this Summer is a little bit ‘o nasty. This kid is a player next month for a spot on Pan Pac team.