CLEVELAND, Ohio – Juniors Matt Akers and Dominik Niedzialek of the Cleveland State University men's swimming & diving team both earned weekly awards from the Horizon League as announced by the league office Tuesday afternoon.
Akers was named the Nike HL Men's Diver of the Week while Niedzialek was tabbed as the Nike HL Men's Swimmer of the Week.
It is the second honor of the season for Akers and the fifth such accolade of his career. Niedzialek earns the second weekly award of his season and the fourth of his career.
Both Vikings put forth impressive performances this past weekend as CSU won its sixth consecutive Magnus Cup.
Niedzialek won all three of the individual events he entered and also helped lead all three relays he swam on to victory. He won the 500 freestyle (4:26.66), the 100 backstroke (48.17) and the 200 backstroke (1:45.25) over the three days. His times in the 500 free and 200 back were new meet records while the 100 back time was a new personal best. He also swam the lead leg on the winning 200 medley, 400 medley and 800 freestyle relays for Cleveland State. Niedzialek now holds the fastest time in the league this season in all three individual events he won this past weekend. Additionally, two of the three winning relays he swam on are the fastest in the HL this season.
Akers dominated in his home pool en route to sweeping the diving boards. He won diving 3-meter with 377.50 points, finishing over 70 points ahead of the runner-up, after he had reset his personal best in prelims with a score of 388.20. Akers then won 1-meter diving with 353.85 points, more than 60 points clear of second place, and claimed a second meet record in as many days. During the course of the weekend, Akers surpassed NCAA Zones standards on both boards by at least 50 points and reset his prior personal bests on both boards by at least 20 points. Akers now owns the top scores in the league this season on both boards.
Cleveland State becomes the first team to sweep the weekly awards twice this season.
With their big fall invitational concluded, the Viking men and women will return to competition in the first days of 2020.