Cleveland, Ohio- The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team concluded a dominating weekend Sunday night as the group took home first place at the first annual Magnus Cup Invitational.
A familiar group led the way for CSU all weekend long, as swimmers not only brought home wins and personal best times, but school records as well.
Junior Al Shillito immediately springs to mind when looking at the results, as he took down two school records on the weekend, breaking the 100 backstroke (49.13) record Saturday, and the 200 backstroke record Sunday (1:47.04).
Those two records were just two of the six wins the junior was able to bring home in the three days. Along with the wins mentioned above he also individually won the 50-yard backstroke (23.15), and was part of winning relays, the 800 freestyle relay (6:49.11), 200 medley relay (1:30.44), and 400 medley relay (3:19.74).
As great as Shillito was the entire event, senior teammate Berry Thompson was just as strong and consistent. Thompson was in five winning relays, the 200 freestyle relay (1:21.34), 400 freestyle relay (3:02.67), 800 freestyle relay (6:49.11), 200 medley relay (1:30.44), and 400 medley relay (3:19.74).
Individually he was just as dominant all weekend long. The senior brought home wins individually in the 50 freestyle (20.36), 100 butterfly (49.38), and 100 freestyle (44.19). Thompson's 100 freestyle time was good enough to hit the NCAA "B" cutoff mark of 44.29. He was also able to go undefeated in every "finals" event he participated in on the weekend, a perfect eight for eight.
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Other swimmers who were able to earn individual victories for the Viking men were Mark De Swart in the 500 tard freestyle (4:30.48) and 400 IM (3:57.55), Justin Kermack in the 200 butterfly (1:49.39), , Brian Ferro in the 100 breaststroke (56.27) and 200 breaststroke (2:01.81), Alex Lewis in the 50 butterfly (22.33), and Jon Querciagrossa in the 1,650 freestyle (16:05.72). Danny Robertsalso won both the 3-meter diving (318.65) and 1-meter diving (300.40).
Looking back on the weekend as a whole, Morton was very happy with the way the team performed.
"We had a fantastic meet, we're so excited about the way our swimmers and divers have been performing, "Morton said. "It really bodes well for the rest of the season."
The Viking men will be off from competition this coming weekend and will be back in the pool for the AT@T Winter National Championships in Austin, Texas November 29th through the December 1st.
