No. 6/9 Indiana swimming and diving had an amazing weekend at the Ohio State Invitational in Columbus, Ohio at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. This midseason marathon of a meet lasted from Thursday through Saturday. Regardless of these long and tedious hours, the Hoosiers showed no signs of stopping. No. 6 IU men's swimming finished first with a collective score of 2,803 points, with the No. 9 women’s team placing second with a collective score of 2,553 points.
After a nail-biting relay between IU and Notre Dame, IU swimmers Rafael Miroslaw, Tomer Frankel, Gavin Wight and Mikkel Lee rose to the top with a set of 2:48.73. Their performance earned them a meet and pool record along with an NCAA “A Cut.” On the women’s team, Anna Peplowski, Ashley Turak, Kristina Paegle and Ella Ristic also earned an NCAA “A Cut” with their relay performance of 3:12.86.
Jassen Yep became the third fastest man in program history, after his NCAA “A Cut” of 1:50.71 destroyed previous pool and meet records. Alongside Yep’s performance, the men’s breaststroke team lead dominating races after Yep, Josh Matheny and Maxwell Reich rose to the top, as six IU swimmers placed within the top ten.
For finals, 33 IU swimmers reached the A tier while 18 athletes reached the B tier. The Hoosiers posted seven times under Olympic expectations along with nine personal bests. In the men's division, six A-tier Hoosiers finished in the men’s 200-yard breaststroke and four finished in the men’s 200-yard fly event. Within the women’s division, five athletes finished in the 200 backstroke and five additional swimmers finished in the 200 fly event.
Junior Skylar Liu dominated diving this weekend, as she was the top scorer all three days, with no other divers within 40 points of her respective score (351.00 over five dives). With a history of dominating her meets, Liu has created a new high standard of diving, as her efforts continue to reach Olympic-level athleticism.
The Hoosiers still have one last 2023 meet against Cincinnati on Friday, Dec. 1, before entering the new year against Michigan, Purdue, Louisville and Wisconsin.
