Jan. 16, 2009
CLEVELAND, Ohio - - The Cleveland State University men's swimming team hosted some tough competition in the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies on Friday, Jan. 16. In a dual meet in the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium, the Vikings claimed seven event wins, including four straight late in the meet, but it wasn't enough for the dual victory. With the 173.5 to 118.5 loss, CSU falls to 8-4 in dual meets this season.
"We had a grueling two and a half weeks of training, we worked out this morning and had an extremely hard practice yesterday with weight and a lot of kicking," head coach Wally Morton said. "I'm excited that we swam so well and were competitive against a quality opponent."
Five different athletes recorded a win for the Vikings, including two each by Mark deSwardt and Marko Milenkovic.
In the first race of the day, the Vikings paired up Todd Winchell, Jakub Dobies, Stephen Grove and Nedim Nisic in the 200 medley relay for a second-place finish (1:32.87). Winchell swam the team's (and his) season best in the leadoff leg with a 24.03 in the 50 backstroke.
deSwardt followed up the relay with CSU's first win of the night, a 9:27.25 in the 1,000 freestyle and turned around to tie for third in the very next event, the 200 freestyle (1:44.96). In the 1,000 free, Pieter Ritz continues to drop time, posting his best time of 10:03.06 for a third-place finish.
Winchell led a trio of Vikings in the 100 backstroke, taking second in 52.23 and the Jakub Dobies got CSU back in the win column with a time of 57.39 in the 100 breaststroke. Zvonimir Androic posted a solid time in the 200 fly, leading the way for the Vikings with his third-place finish (1:56.48).
The team's third individual win came in the 50 freestyle when Stephen Grove touched in 21.10. In the next two events, the Vikings picked up fourth and third-place finishes, respectively, by Keith Everhart in the 100 freestyle (48.26) and Colin Hanner in the 200 backstroke (1:54.18).
The Vikings used a strong push to close out the meet, winning four of the last five events. Milenkovic picked up his first win in the 200 breaststroke, finishing in 2:06.15 and deSwardt followed with his second win of the day, a 4:37.28 time in the 500 freestyle. Winchell led two Vikings to a podium finish in the 100 butterfly, finishing in 50.02 while Grove tallied a third-place finish (50.90).
Milenkovic's second win came in the 200 IM, during which he swam a season best time of 1:55.63 for the victory, beating out teammate Zvonimir Androic (1:59.69, 2nd). In the night's final event, the 400 freestyle relay, Everhart, Hanner, Derek Butts and deSwardt picked up a second-place finish (3:15.68).
During the diving competition, Matt DiMasso recorded second-place finishes in both the 1-meter (217.95) and 3-meter events (228.90).
The Vikings return to the pool on Saturday, Jan. 24 for their final home meet of the season and will celebrate Senior Day against Wright State at 2:00 p.m.
