Julia Dennis, Liberty Clark Impressive as Ohio State Invite Opens With Relays
Racing at the Ohio State Invitational got underway Tuesday evening with timed finals in the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays, and the women’s competition saw some particularly swift splits to start things off. Louisville senior Julia Dennis and Indiana freshman Liberty Clark both impressed while leading their squads to victory.
Louisville put up a time of 1:33.69 in the 200 medley relay thanks to Julie Mishler, Caroline Larsen, Ella Welch and Dennis. Only Larsen and Dennis returned from the team that finished third in the event at last year’s NCAA Championships, but the overall time was less than three tenths slower. Key in that result was Dennis splitting 20.79 on the anchor leg, the only sub-22 split in the field. Indiana placed second in 1:34.96, with Kristina Paegle finishing in 21.03, while Ohio State went 1:35.62 for third.
In the 800 free relay, Clark set the tone for Indiana with a 1:41.55 leadoff leg. That crushed her best time by almost nine tenths and made herthe third-fastest swimmer in the country this year behind Virginia’s Anna Moesch and Michigan’s Bella Sims. Only three swimmers, including now-graduated Hoosier great Anna Peplowski, surpassed that time in last season’s NCAA final.
Miranda Grana, Macky Hodges and Reese Tiltmann finished out IU’s relay in 6:55.91, which surpassed the field by almost five seconds. Louisville took second (7:00.76) with the hosting Buckeyes taking third (7:01.73).
The Hoosier men grabbed first in the 200 medley relay with a sizzling time of 1:21.99. Miroslav Knedla led off, and he was followed by Travis Gulledge, Owen McDonald and Mikkel Lee. Penn State grabbed second in 1:23.05, with Louisville coming in third at 1:23.16.
Ohio State’s lone win came in the men’s 800 free relay from Tomas Navikonis, Cornelius Jahn, Jordi Vilchez and Tristan Jankovics. Navikonis led off in 1:31.71, the only sub-1:32 performance of the evening, as his team clocked 6:12.33. Indiana had Olympian Aaron Shackell going 1:32.22 on the second leg as the team placed second (6:13.01) while Louisville, with Guy Brooks leading off in 1:32.47, took third in 6:13.44.
With individual action set to begin Wednesday, the Louisville women have already scored 112 points to lead Ohio State (104) and Indiana (100). Indiana’s men have the lead with 128, followed by OSU (104) and Louisville (98).