Off Big Tens Win, Kristen Romano, Ohio State Building to NCAAs
Kristen Romano felt she could see the growth coming when she visited Ohio State in high school.
Bill Dorenkott had been in charge of the women’s program for nearly a decade. He’d assume control of the men’s team during Romano’s freshman year.
So while Romano might not have pegged the Buckeyes as back-to-back Big Ten champions by the time her four years had elapsed, she new something special was on the way.
“The process of becoming this championship team has started with that senior class and has continued to grow and grow and grow,” Romano told Swimming World this week. “And that’s been really special. It’s part of the reason why I wanted to come to Ohio State so bad for my collegiate career because I saw from the time I took my (recruiting) trip, I saw the way the team interacted, and I saw that this team was going to go places.”
Among the places Ohio State is taking Romano is back to her fourth straight NCAA Championships, starting this week. The native of Long Island is seeded fourth in the 200 individual medley, 10th in the 400 IM and 16th in the 200 back at NCAAs. She’s likely to be part of an Ohio State 800 free relay that is seeded third, having set the 200 free school record at NCAAs in 2019.
Kristen Romano; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The Big Ten freshman of the year has grown her program at NCAAs each year. She was due to swim all three events at last year’s cancelled meet but instead gets that chance this year.
Romano said she’s going to opt for a fifth year, made possible by the NCAA in October. So even this NCAAs won’t be the senior’s last. But she approaches it with a sense of urgency that is reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s something that’s in the past that I’m not super upset that it didn’t happen, but I also know that because I didn’t have that opportunity last year, this year is going to be all that much more special,” Romano said. “I know the entire team we were going to take to NCAAs last year is going to be pretty amazing. That gives us a lot of confidence going into this NCAAs, knowing what we could’ve put together last year, a little disappointed that that didn’t happen but knowing that we have that in us.”
Romano said she’s learned a lot in her time out of the pool in 2020. It’s what accentuates her appreciation of what the Buckeyes did at Big 10s, scoring 1,584 points to easily outdistance Michigan (1,326.5). The teams behind them like the Wolverines and Indiana might have more top swimmers, but Romano loves the way her team battles – the “little things every day of the season that our entire team did” – across the lineup. That’s what led them to the title, even as some might have doubted them.
On the heels of NCAAs, Romano has a chance to qualify for the Olympics for Puerto Rico. She’s hoping to head to the island for a national long-course meet at the end of April. She holds five Puerto Rican records and represented the island in the 2019 World Championships in the 200 IM.
First thing is first, though, and Romano believes Ohio State can surprise some people at NCAAs.
“It’s just using that toughness that we’ve gained, that I’ve gained, over the past season in dealing with all the fluctuations and all the different little bullets we had to dodge with COVID and everything,” she said.
