Ohio State Snaps Harvard Men's Swimming and Diving's Win Streak

Riding high after its demolition of Brown on Thursday, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team took on No. 8 Ohio State hoping to maintain its 13-meet win streak.

But the Crimson (4-1, 4-0 Ivy) found life outside the Ivy League much more difficult, as the Buckeyes (9-0, 2-0 Big Ten) took control early and gave Harvard its first loss of the season, 181-118, on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

Coming off a 10-day training camp in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its recent Ivy success, the team was looking at this weekend as a chance to gauge its progress at this point in the season. Despite the loss, the Crimson put up some impressive individual performances, including three individual wins from freshman Chuck Katis.

“A lot of people were looking at this weekend as a litmus test for how the next few weeks will go,” sophomore Chris Satterthwaite said. “Ohio State is definitely one of the better, if not the best team we will swim against all season. We wanted to come in and give some good swims, and the team definitely did that.”

The Crimson came into McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion energized to take on a ranked foe.

“The excitement of being in a new place really gets you going and excited, especially when it’s Ohio State and they have one of the nicest pools in the country,” freshman Griffin Schumacher said.

The Buckeyes began the meet with two strong victories. After edging Harvard’s ‘A’ 200-yard medley relay team by under a second, Ohio State swept the top three spots in the 1000 freestyle and jumped out to a 29-7 lead.

But the Crimson fought back, with Satterthwaite winning the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:39.09. Freshman Zach Walters took second behind him at 1:39.95.

“I was really happy with my time [in the 200 Freestyle],” Satterthwaite said. “It’s a lot of fun to go up against these guys [from Ohio State], and I was definitely happy with the place.”

And after Harvard dropped the first two finishes in the 100 backstroke, Katis earned his first victory of the day in the 100 breaststroke, finishing in 55.29 seconds and earning nine points for his team. Junior Owen Wurzbacher finished third with a time of 57.08, gaining another three points for the Crimson.

But after Katis’ first victory, the Buckeyes again asserted their dominance, taking a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 butterfly. Senior Niall Janney was Harvard’s top performer at 1:52.06, good for fourth place.

The Crimson’s younger swimmers impressed in the 50 freestyle, with Schumacher finishing second in 20.46 seconds and sophomore Oliver Lee taking third with a time of 20.91.

The swimmers then took a break as the meet moved to the one-meter diving.  Freshman Mike Mosca had taken first in the one-meter against Brown with a score of 347.93. But Ohio State sophomore Christian Holstein was a cut above everyone in the pool, finishing twenty points ahead of all other divers with a score of 359.25.  Mosca finished third with 331.65.

In the three-meter dive, Mosca again picked up third with a score of 366.83.  Buckeye sophomore duo Shane Miszkiel and Holstein set the pace, scoring 425.48 and 416.93, respectively.

Satterthwaite then got back in the water for the 100 freestyle, where he was just out touched by Ohio State junior Jason Schnur and took second place with a time of 44.91 seconds.

Katis earned his second win of the day with a commanding victory in the 200 breaststroke, topping Buckeye freshman Christopher Cowley by three seconds.  He later picked up his third win in similar fashion, outpacing Janney for a 1:50.35 finish in the 200-yard individual medley.

“Chuck has had a definitely phenomenal season, and his meet Saturday was a testament to that,” Satterthwaite said.

But the sophomore’s praise did not end with Katis.

“The freshman class as a whole has been excellent.  We had one of the strongest recruiting classes in the country and they have all lived up to expectations.”

With the win out of reach, the Crimson ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ relay teams faced off and registered quality times heading back into Ancient Eight competition.

“Our relay at the end was probably the best race of the meet,” Satterthwaite said. “We were pretty close to our Ivy Championship time from last season and all of our guys put in great swims.”

Harvard will be back in action in the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet at Blodgett Pool, the team’s biggest meet before the Ivy Championships.

—Staff writer Peter G. Cornick be reached at pcornick@college.harvard.edu.