Jan. 10, 2009
CLEVELAND, Ohio - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
The Cleveland State University men's swimming team opened the second half of its season at home on Jan. 10, hosting Xavier in a dual in the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium. The meet was originally scheduled as a double dual, but Duquesne was unable to make the event due to poor weather conditions.
Despite a week of intense training in Florida the previous week, CSU's Vikings swept the meet with victories in all 11 events for a score of 139-62. The win moves the Vikings to 8-3 on the season.
"I'm very pleased with the performances today. We did what we'd been working on all week during our training trip and today we got good swims and good efforts," head coach Wally Morton said. "After a week of intense training - nine days without a break - I thought we had a great day."
Nedim Nisic, Jakub Dobies, Todd Winchell and Marko Milenkovic got things started in the 200 medley relay, winning the event in 1:34.68. CSU's team of Zvonimir Androic, Deni Gasparin, Colin Hanner and Travis Lombardozzi recorded a third-place finish in 1:38.37.
In the 1,000 freestyle, Mark deSwardt continued his streak of solid performances, winning in 9:25.53. In fourth place for the Vikings, Pieter Ritz swam the fastest time of his career, 10:09.71.
In the 200 freestyle, CSU swimmers took three of the top four spots. Todd Winchell swam an excellent time and the team's fastest swim of the season (1:43.36) to hold off deSwardt (1:45.10), who was swimming his second straight event. Androic finished fourth in the event in 1:47.32.
The 50 freestyle saw Stephen Grove lead the Vikings to another solid finish. Grove won in 21.59 followed by Keith Everhart (21.94) in second and Mike Marsico (22.32) in fourth. Derek Butts finished sixth in the event, recording his best time of the season (23.18).
Milenkovic swam his fastest 200 IM of the season to win the event in 1:55.95. Deni Gasparin (2:00.81) and Jakub Dobies (2:05.21) finished third and fourth, respectively. Winchell picked up his second win of the day in the 100 butterfly (51.21), followed closely by Grove (51.76, 2nd) and Lombardozzi (54.83, 4th).
The 100 freestyle win went to Olympian Nedim Nisic (47.83) with Everhart (49.55) and Marsico (50.06) finishing in third and fourth, respectively. Androic won the 100 backstroke with a time of 53.31. deSwardt also picked up a win in the 500 free (4:38.84) and Dobies collected a win in the 100 breaststroke (56.95). In the day's final event, the 200 free relay, Grove, Nisic, Marsico and Everhart finished in 1:26.51 to round out the sweep.
The Vikings return to the pool on Friday, Jan. 16 when the host Oakland at 5:00 p.m. in the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium.
