CLEVELAND, Ohio - Junior Dominic Poletta won the men's 50 freestyle as the Cleveland State University men's and women's swimming & diving teams hosted the first day of the seventh annual Magnus Cup Friday inside the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium.
The CSU men opened a big early lead after the opening day of action. The Vikings have 621 points and own a 199-point lead over second-place Simon Fraser.
The Viking women sit in sixth place of a strong 16-team field with 152 points.
Poletta got CSU's first individual event win of the Magnus Cup and also swam on a winning relay Friday. He won the 50 freestyle in 20.56 seconds, claiming the event by over .30 seconds in the field of 59 participants. Poletta also swam the lead leg of the Vikings' winning 200 freestyle relay team. He was followed by junior DJ Arslanian, sophomore Ryan Sedlak and junior Jack MacDonald. The quartet won in 1:21.23, finishing more than a second ahead of the runner-up.
CSU's quartet for the 200 free relay also finished in the top four spots in the 50 freestyle, in the same order they swam in the relay. Arslanian was second (20.88), Sedlak was third in a new personal-best (21.03) and MacDonald was fourth (21.16).
Senior Sean Mulvin and freshman Mason Romstadt were ninth and 12th in the 50 free in 21.56 and 21.31 seconds, respectively.
Freshman Jack Krusinski had a pair of top-four individual finishes while junior Tyler Stevenson was among the top seven in the same two events.
Krusinski was second in the 50 breaststroke in 25.91 seconds while Stevenson was fifth in 26.26 seconds.
Krusinski led a group of four Vikings within the top 10 in the 200 IM. He was fourth in a new personal-best 1:52.77 while sophomore Timothy Kubacki was right behind in fifth in 1:52.89. Stevenson was seventh in 1:53.77 while senior Jared Stergar was ninth (1:54.58).
Seniors MacJilton Lewis (1:54.75) and Addison Kaufmann (1:55.10) also added top-15 finishes in that event for CSU in the field of 73.
Sophomore Dominik Niedzialek posted a top-five individual finish and led off CSU's 400 medley relay. He took fourth in the 500 freestyle in 4:28.95. Senior Jason van der Touw was 10th in 4:36.22 while junior Erwan Mahoudo was 11th in 4:35.42.
Niedzialek and van der Touw swam the first and last legs of the medley relay with Krusinski and freshman Matthew Martin swimming the middle legs. The group finished second in 3:18.41.
Sophomore Matt Akers won 3-meter diving with 290.45 points while senior Curtis Roden was the runner-up with 284.75 points.
Seven Viking women had top-15 individual finishes in some deep fields on the women's side.
CSU put two in the top eight in the 200 IM. Senior Molly McNamara was fourth in 2:04.21 while freshman Agnes Bahr was seventh in 2:05.64. Bahr had put forth a new personal best by two seconds in the preliminaries to become one of the five fastest performers in school history in the event.
Sophomore Alana Cartwright was 12th in the 200 IM (2:04.54) while senior Claudia Zido was 23rd (2:06.67) in the field of 110 competitors.
Sophomore Gracyn McQueary led the way for CSU in the 50 breaststroke, taking sixth in 29.93 seconds. Classmate Libby Smith took 14th in 30.20 seconds.
Sophomore Lexie Kostelnik took 12th in the 500 freestyle in 4:57.21 as she dropped nearly five seconds off from her prelims time.
Juniors Madisyn Jaszcz and Gabriella Marinelli were CSU's top finishers in the 50 freestyle. They finished 25th (24.25) and 26th (24.32) in the field of 138 swimmers. Junior Lauren Frank was 39th (24.70) with both Jaszcz and Frank setting new personal bests in the event.
Sophomore Erica Henrichsen took 12th place in women's 1-meter diving with 199.85 points.
CSU's top 400 medley relay team took 10th among 38 squads as freshman Riley Drummond, Smith, McNamara and Zido finished in 3:48.64.
Marinelli, Jaszcz, Drummond and Zido took 12th in the 200 free relay in 1:36.80.
The Magnus Cup continues Saturday with five more individual swimming events, two more relays and the conclusion of diving.