Around the Oval has reached its penultimate release in 2024.
Now in the third week of May, Monday marks the second-to-last release of ATO, Eleven Warriors’ one-stop shop for coverage of Ohio State Olympic sports. As the spring sports season comes to an end, we look at the men's and women's track and field teams and their performances at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, men's golf's week ahead at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional and baseball's Big Ten Tournament outlook.
Over the weekend, we also covered Ohio State men's tennis and its win over Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament.
Let's dive in.
Track and Field
Ohio State track and field competed at the 2024 Big Ten Outdoor Championships over the weekend. The women's team took third place in the event with 115 points, while the men's team finished 10th with 49 points.
The Buckeyes wrapped up the Big Ten Championships with the women in third and the men in 10th!
— Ohio State T&F/XC (@OhioStateTFXC) May 12, 2024
: https://t.co/UAnYQyyedB
: https://t.co/YoBwe4ooKQ#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/9Rs9MzWns1
The Ohio State women's team won three Big Ten event titles on Sunday as Leah Bertrand won the 100m in 11.16 seconds, Fatouma Conde won the 200m in 22.91 seconds and a team of Bertrand, Conde, Nya Bussey and Columba Effong won the 4x100m relay in 43.44 seconds. Meanwhile, the men's team captured one Big Ten event title as Hayden Tobias won the shot put with a 20-meter throw.
As conference champions, Bertrand, Conde, Bussey, Effong and Tobias are automatic qualifiers for the NCAA postseason. Those athletes, and several Buckeyes who could be named at-large bids later this week, will compete in the NCAA East Regional in Lexington, Kentucky, from May 23-25. If those Buckeyes advance to nationals, they will travel to Eugene, Oregon, for the NCAA Championships from June 5-8.
Jesse Owens
On Thursday, World Athletics honored the late Jesse Owens with a plaque at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The plaque commemorates Owens' “Day of Days” at the 1935 Big Ten Championships, where the Ohio State legend set four world records in 45 minutes.
Photo: Jaime Crawford, Michigan Photography, Freelance
At 21 years old, Owens ran a 9.4 in the 100 yards (tied world record), jumped 8.13m on his lone long jump attempt (world record for 25 years), and won both the 220 yards (20.3) and the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6), with times faster than previous records for the 200-yard events.
Ohio State track and field director Rosalind Joseph, Michigan track and field director Kevin Sullivan, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and Owens' granddaughter, Marlene Dortch, attended the ceremony where World Athletics honored those accomplishments.
“We appreciate World Athletics and the University of Michigan for honoring not only a great in our program but a great in the sport of track and field,” Joseph said in a statement. “We are appreciative that everyone here can recognize that this is someone who has left a legacy beyond the rivalry and really what it means to be able to promote our sport, promote what Jesse Owens has done for the sport of track and field and continue to live out that legacy.”
Men's Golf
Ohio State men's golf will compete at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional from Monday to Wednesday this week along with Auburn, Virginia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Duke, LSU, Louisville, Houston, South Carolina, Lipscomb, Yale, Loyola Maryland and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The Ohio State lineup of Neal Shipley, Jackson Chandler, Maxwell Moldovan, Adam Wallin and Tyler Sabo started round one at 9:30 a.m. Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Buckeyes could tee off between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. at The University Club, a par-72 course (7,401 yards) in Baton Rouge, Louisianna.
Postseason Starts TODAY!
— Ohio State Mens Golf (@OhioStateMGOLF) May 13, 2024
Round 1 of NCAA Regionals
9:30 a.m. ET
SCORING: https://t.co/atbALgPmEM pic.twitter.com/RDKFfhpObM
Ohio State has advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the past two seasons and will look to make their third consecutive appearance in the event for the first time since 1991-93. The Buckeyes finished 24th at the 2022 NCAA Championships and 15th at the 2023 NCAA Championships.
Baseball
Ohio State baseball beat Northwestern in two of three games over the weekend, improving to 26-23 overall and 10-11 in Big Ten competition this season.
Tied for seventh in the conference standings with Maryland and Michigan State, Ohio State holds the final Big Ten Tournament spot entering the final weekend of the regular season. From Friday to Sunday, the Terrapins will face Penn State (23-22, 9-12 Big Ten), the Buckeyes will face Rutgers (27-23, 5-16 Big Ten) and the Spartans will face Nebraska (32-18, 14-7 Big Ten). The teams with the two best records against their opponents will advance to the conference tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, from May 21-26.
Understatement: The final weekend is gonna be fun.#B1GBaseball pic.twitter.com/aDwu03vsiP
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 13, 2024
Ohio State has not faced Rutgers in 2024. The Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights have 10 all-time matchups dating back to 1968, and the programs are tied with a 10-10 record. Since Rutgers became a Big Ten school in 2014, the Scarlet Knights hold an 8-7 advantage in the series.
The Buckeyes have made 29 Big Ten Tournament appearances all time. However, Ohio State has not appeared in the conference postseason since 2019, when the No. 7-seeded Buckeyes and Most Outstanding Player Andrew Magno caught fire at TD Ameritrade Park and beat Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota and Nebraska en route to the program's second Big Ten Tournament title.
