CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State University men's and women's swimming & diving teams opened their 2018-19 seasons Friday evening by hosting the inaugural Viking Relay Challenge at the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium.
The CSU men swept all eight relays contested while the women's squad won four relays while taking four runner-up finishes. The teams combined to win both coed relays contested.
Twenty two Viking men swam on at least one winning relay while fourteen Viking women achieved that feat. That group was led by junior Ryan Johnston, who swam on three victorious relays.
Senior Jason van der Touw, Johnston and sophomore Timothy Kubacki combined to win the 300 backstroke relay in 2:34.47.
Johnston then led off the 400 medley relay and was followed by senior Jared Stergar, junior Matthew Martin and senior Addison Kaufmann, as the quartet won in 3:33.18. Johnston also led off a winning effort in the 400 IM relay and was followed by junior Tyler Stevenson, freshman Jack Krusinski and senior Sean Mulvin, as the group finished in 3:39.42.
Mulvin and Kubacki swam the back half of the winning 500 free crescendo relay with junior Dominic Poletta and sophomore Ryan Sedlak leading off (4:09.44).
Kaufmann and Krusinski led off the 300 breaststroke relay with senior MacJilton Lewis swimming the anchor leg as the group finished in 3:00.23.
Martin swam the middle leg of the winning 300 butterfly relay between freshman Austin Harper and junior Sam Sawyer (2:36.84).
Stergar and junior Jack MacDonald both swam on the winning coed 200 medley relay with senior Cassandra Oltman leading off and senior Molly McNamara swimming the third leg (1:40.70).
McNamara also swam on the winning 400 medley relay for the Vikings. Junior Chuchu Yang led off and was followed by sophomore Libby Smith before freshman Maggie Hogsed swam the anchor leg (3:57.22).
Yang led off the winning 300 backstroke relay and was followed by freshman Agnes Bahr and sophomore Dana Bender (2:58.73). Bahr led off the winning 400 IM relay and was followed by sophomores Shaw Barney and Alana Cartwright and freshman Riley Drummond (4:05.94).
Drummond was the final Viking woman to swim on two winning relays Friday. She teamed up with sophomore Gracyn McQueary to swim the back half of the winning coed 200 free relay. Junior DJ Arslanian and freshman Mason Romstadt swam the opening half as the group finished in 1:32.32.
MacDonald and Romstadt closed out the meet by swimming on their second winning relay of the night in the 400 free relay. Junior Erwan Mahoudo and freshman Andrius Kijauskas rounded out that relay as the quartet finished in 3:16.18.
No team scores were kept at the meet.
Cleveland State will resume action at the Akron Zips Classic on the second weekend of October.