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The Ohio State University's Women's Synchronized Swimming Team

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Revision as of 17:11, 27 April 2013 by Unknown user (talk)
Olentangy Park.jpg
Nine women posed on a diving board at the Olentangy Park swimming pool, 1925. The amusement park was located on North High Street in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ohio State University's Women's Synchronized Swimming Team is one of the premier teams in college synchronized swimming. Since synchronized swimming became an official National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) sport in 1977, the Buckeyes have won twenty-four championships. The only other teams to win multiple championships are the University of Arizona and Stanford University. In the sports twenty-nine year history, the Buckeyes have failed to win the national championship on just five occasions. More than eighty separate Buckeye women have been named All-Americans during the team's history. For the first eighteen years of the Ohio State team's existence Mary Jo Ruggieri served as the coach. In 1996, Linda Lichter-Witter assumed control of the team.

While synchronized swimming did not become an official NCAA sport until 1997, Ohio State has had a synchronized swimming tradition since the 1920s. At first, the team put on shows for the local community, but by the 1950s and 1960s, it began competing against other schools in club events.