CLEVELAND, Ohio- On day one of the 2014 Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships, the Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team are in third with a score of 127 points. CSU participated in four swimming finals, beginning with the 200 free relay, 1,000 free, men's 3-meter diving, and the 200 medley relay.
The Vikings were led by Alex Lewis in the 200 free relay, with the relay team taking third with a time of 1:20.69. Lewis'split time of 19.56 in the 200 free relay was a conference record and also an NCAA B-cut time. In the men's 3-meter diving Stephen Schillero finished runner-up with a score of 294.60. Danny Roberts finished behind Schillero with a score of 286.50. The Vikings took second with a time of 1:29.13 in the 200 medley relay.
Head Coach Wally Morton spoke about the men's performance after day one. "The swim of the evening was Alex Lewis leading off our 200 free relay. His time is one of the fastest this year in the nation. It puts him in a position possibly earning a trip to the National Championship, but he's still on the bubble. I feel that Alex will swim faster tomorrow, but that was a phenomenal swim to break the school record to lead things off," said a very impressed Morton.
"The men in the 200 free relay finished third and with the exception of the 19.56 split, a bit of our splits were off, but basically they finished out with a very solid third place finish. We had incredible diving by our men. Clearly, the guy that won it (K.J. Heger) has been the top diver throughout the season. If he didn't hit all of his dives, they could've beaten them, but he would have to miss a dive. Danny Roberts and Stephen Schillero getting second and third was a wonderful showing. The men finished second just by a tenth of a second. I was very pleased with the swims. We planned on winning that event. We typically do win that event, but we still had some wonderful swims. Al Shillito's 50 back was the second fastest in the pool. We had an incredible swim by Alex Lewis with a time of 20.77 and Adam Ingledew had a split of 19.64 and had a great finish. We could have finished anywhere from first to fifth. It was a very fun day of swimming. I think we are where we thought we would be based on what everyone else has and what we have. Friday and Saturday it really picks up."
Cleveland State will be back in the pool tomorrow morning, beginning with swimming prelims at 10:00 a.m. The swimming and diving finals will begin at 5:30 p.m.
