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Mattaus Rammel from the New Wave Swim Team in Raleigh, North Carolina has verbally committed to attend Ohio State University in fall 2026. His commitment comes two weeks after breakthrough swim in the 100 fly at the Winter Junior Championships – East meet in Greensboro earlier this month.
At that meet, Rammel won the B Final and placed 9th in the 100 fly in 47.25. That was a new best time by 1.7 seconds, improving on the 48.91 that he swam in early November of this year. In total this season, he has dropped over two seconds in this event versus his best time coming into the fall.
In the process, he tied the North Carolina Swimming LSC 15-16 record in that event – Noah Henderson swam 47.25 as well in 2018.
Rammel is a project swimmer for the Buckeyes and a bit of a late bloomer. One of the younger swimmers in the class, he doesn’t turn 17 until May.
He was a long course entry into that Winter Juniors meet in that 100 fly and used the Bonus standard to enter his other individual race, the 50 free, where he also swam a best time of 20.70.
While Rammel didn’t have the cut to swim the 100 free individually at the meet, he split 44.10 on a 400 medley relay anchor, which is 1.4 seconds better than his lifetime best flat start.
Rammel attends the Ravenscroft School, where he is the defending North Carolina Private Schools D1 State Champion in the 50 free.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 20.70
- 100 free – 45.53
- 100 fly – 47.25
- 200 fly – 1:51.34
- 100 back – 50.76
Rammel is the first announced commitment for the Buckeyes men in the class of 2026 – an unusually-late start for the team that finished 13th at last year’s NCAA Championship meet.
The current Ohio State butterfly crew is young, led by freshman Matthew Klinge, who swam 46.21 at the Ohio State Invitational in November. Klinge has already dropped over a second in the event as a freshman at Ohio State to rank 10th in the Big Ten this season. That’s a pretty significant development for the Buckeyes, who are trying to keep pace with the conference front-runners Indiana and Michigan – Indiana’s Finn Brooks has been 45.15 this season.
They bring in Ethan Reniweicki (47.48) among a group of pretty good sprint flyers in the class of 2025, but Rammel’s time earlier this month will make him a key difference-maker for the Buckeyes when he arrives in a season-and-a-half.
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