Buckeye Spotlight – April 29 – Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Week in and week out, Buckeyes raise the standard of excellence set at Ohio State, whether that be in competition, in the classroom or in the community. ‘Buckeye Spotlight’ recognizes Buckeye student-athletes who had noteworthy accomplishments both in contests and beyond the box score.     

Sophie Bidwell | Women’s Track & Field – Throws | So. | Newark, Ohio 

• Bidwell also set a PR of 45.90m/157’2″ in the women’s discus throw, placing sixth overall and beating her previous PR by nearly two meters. She broke her old record of 44.07m/144’7″, which happened at the 2024 USF Bulls Alumni Invite. 

Stanislaw Chacinski | Men’s Volleyball | Fr. | Warsaw, Poland 

Taylor Cruse | Softball | So. | Basehor, Kan. 

• Cruse hit .444 last week with a triple, two home runs, and 10 RBI in Ohio State’s 4-0 week, which included a three-game series sweep over Purdue. 

Jesse Mendez | Wrestling | Jr. | Crown Point, Ind. 

Nao Nishino | Women’s Tennis | Fr. | Tokyo, Japan 

• Nishino clinched the Big Ten Tournament title for the Buckeyes Saturday in Ojai, Calif., as No. 2 seed Ohio State downed No. 1 Michigan, 4-3. 

• Nishino lost the first set in a tiebreak but evened the match with a tiebreaker win of her own, saving a match point in the process. In the third, the Buckeye prevailed 6-4 to seal the team victory over the Wolverines. 

• This season, Nishino earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. She is 25-7 overall i sigles and 13-2 in dual matches. She has a team-best 23 overall doubles victories and is tied for second with 14 dual match doubles wins. 

• With the tournament title, the program’s fourth, Ohio State moved itself into a Top 8 national seed and will host NCAA Tournament first and second round matches this weekend.  

Tyler Sabo | Men’s Golf | R-So. | Ashland, Ohio 

Preston Stearns | Men’s Tennis | R-So. | Cincinnati, Ohio 

• He beat Illinois’ Mathis Debru 6-1, 6-1, Washington’s Ivan Sodan 6-4, 6-2 and then took down UCLA’s No. 108 ranked Aadarsh Tripathi 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the championship match.