A reflection on this past year in Ohio State women’s sports

The women's athletic teams at Ohio State this past year have been, in one word, dominant. Obviously, all Buckeye sports are elite, but I wanted to shine a spotlight on everything the ladies have accomplished during the 2021-2022 season. Holy moly, was it a lot.

Women’s Swim & Dive

The Buckeyes captured their third consecutive Big Ten Title on Feb. 19. They finished with six event wins and 12 individual medals at this year’s meet. With the win, the program is now alone in second with eight Big Ten team championships. Eight different Buckeyes earned first team All-Big Ten honors. Ohio State ended up concluding their season at the NCAA Championships in seventh place.

Women’s Basketball

This team was SO fun to watch this past season, especially when it came to tournament time. The Buckeyes, who finished the regular season ranked No. 17, clinched a share of the Big Ten Conference Championship, accumulating a 22-5 record overall and a 14-4 mark in Big Ten play.

They went on to earn a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, first coming out victorious against Missouri State. Ohio State had a tough matchup with No. 3 LSU in the second round, and pulled off the upset by a decent margin, 79-64. This win advanced them to their first Sweet Sixteen since 2017. Unfortunately, No. 2 Texas pulled out the win in an extremely close battle to end the Buckeyes’ exciting postseason run.

Taylor Mikesell and Jacy Sheldon were both named to first team all-conference, while Braxtin Miller was an honorable mention and Rikki Harris represented Ohio State as Sportsmanship Award nominee. In even more exciting news, Mikesell announced that she will be returning to Ohio State to use her fifth and final year of eligibility.

Photo by Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

Dance Team

The Buckeyes won titles in all three events that they competed in, taking top honors in the pom, jazz and game day finals. No other team has ever won all three divisions, let alone in the same year. It also continues a championship-winning trend: in each of the last five years, Ohio State has won at least one title at nationals.

When you take the time to think about it, this is just unreal. These women had to prepare for three different categories, and they weren’t just successful in each of them, they were the best in the country in all of them! These three championships plus six previous ones have totaled to nine championships in the past five years, obviously this year being the best.

Synchronized Swimming

Ohio State captured its 33rd overall National Championship when the synchronized swimming team won in dominant fashion, sweeping each category of the U.S. Collegiate National Championship. The team has two Olympians on it, freshmen Emily Armstrong and Ruby Remati.

Armstrong earned the Individual High Point Award. She won two gold medals and a silver medal for the Buckeyes. Holly Vargo-Brown won U.S. Collegiate Coach of the Year for the sixth time in her career.

Women’s Ice Hockey

Perhaps the most exciting championship of all, the women's ice hockey team got the glory when they battled to a 3-2 victory over Minnesota Duluth in the finals of the Frozen Four, the program’s first national title. This was just the cherry on top of an amazing season by the Buckeyes, who were pretty much unbeatable the entire year.

The Buckeyes won a school-record 32 games — including a record 17 on its home ice — led the nation with 175 goals scored, set a program record with 289 points on the season, and led the nation with a 37 pct. power play.

A crazy stat is that head coach Nadine Muzerall has now won seven national championships: as a player (in 2000 and 2001 with Minnesota); as an assistant coach (2012-13-15-16 with Minnesota) and now as a head coach. Another fun tidbit is that the game made history, with each team in the final game featuring all-female coaching staffs!

Photo by Justin Berl/NCAA Photos/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

Women’s Tennis

The Buckeyes finished Big Ten play undefeated, going 11-0 against conference opponents to capture their second consecutive Big Ten championship, sharing with Michigan last year, but being the sole winners this season!

The women concluded the regular season at 18-4 overall before falling to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Women’s Rowing

No. 9 Ohio State won its 10th Big Ten Championship, winning four races and finishing second in the remaining three at the Indianapolis Rowing Center on May 15.

The Buckeyes crossed the finish line first in the first novice eight, second varsity four, first varsity four and first varsity eight races while earning second place in the second novice eight, third varsity four and second varsity eight contests.

At the NCAA Championships, Ohio State finished in the No. 8 spot. However, the Buckeyes placed No. 2 nationally in the First Varsity Four (Grand Final) competition!

Women's Track and Field

The Ohio State women’s track and field team won the 2022 Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Minneapolis, also May 15. This is the third-straight and fifth overall team title for the women, setting a meet record with the 185.5 team points, breaking the previous record of 179 set in 1994.

The women’s 4x100m relay (Yanique Dayle, Anavia Battle, Nya Bussey and Leah Bertrand) beat the field by more than a second to finish in 43.20 and win the Big Ten title. The women’s 4x400m relay wrapped up the meet with a win, finishing in 3:31.94 as Chanler Robinson, Alyssa Marsh, Jaydan Wood and Bryannia Murphy made up the relay squad. Murphy moved up to second in program history by running a 51.72 in her win in the 400m.

Bussey won the women’s 100m, Jaimie Robinson won the triple jump and Adelaide Aquilla defended her shot put title with a best throw of 18.46m.