Feb. 6, 2009
VALPARAISO, Ind. - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
The Cleveland State University men's swimming and diving teams traveled to Valparaiso for a Horizon League dual meet on Friday, Jan. 6. The men finished with a 111-89 victory, winning all but one event. With the victory, CSU improves to 10-4 on the season.
"Once again, the star of the meet was Mark deSwardt with three individual wins," head coach Wally Morton said. "I thought he did an outstanding job. Overall, we swam almost everyone in off events trying to see what they would look like in some events they don't typically swim, and as a result I thought it was a solid effort as we get ready for a very, very tough meet tomorrow against UIC."
The Vikings opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay as Todd Winchell, Deni Gasparin, Marko Milenkovic and Travis Lombardozzi paired up for a time of 1:35.91.
deSwardt picked up his first win of the day in the 1,650 freestyle, finishing in 15:38.01, almost two second ahead of the runner-up, his teammate, Pieter Ritz (17:06.49). deSwardt's time was the second-fastest in the Horizon League this season, behind only his time of 15:20.75 recorded on Dec. 7.
In the 200 freestyle, Mike Marsico led the way for the Vikings with a time of 1:47.53 while Stephen Grove won the 50 freestyle in 21.69.
In his second victory, deSwardt swam the second-fastest time in school history (3:57.41) in the 400 IM. deSwardt's previous best of 3:59.43 came on Dec. 6. Milenkovic followed deSwardt with a win in the 100 butterfly (52.97). CSU's two swimmers, Winchell and Marsico, swam the 100 free as an exhibition race. Had their times counted the pair would have finished second (48.04) and third (48.09), respectively.
Grove posted a win in the 100 backstroke (53.71) and deSwardt kept pace with his final win of the day, a time of 4:50.48 in the 500 freestyle. Jakub Dobies won the teams' final individual race, the 100 breaststroke, in 59.48. In an exhibition swim of the same race, Gasparin finished in what would have been the winning time (59.31).
The 200 free relay team of Milenkovic, Dobies, Keith Everhart and Derek Butts sealed up the Vikings' dual victory with a win in 1:28.08.
Matt DiMasso won the 1-meter diving event for the Vikings, recording a score of 237.60.
Both Butts and Lombardozzi also used the meet to better their top times of the season during exhibition races. Butts improved his time in the 100 back (55.50) while Lombardozzi improved in the 100 fly (53.41).
The Vikings are back in action tomorrow, Feb. 7 when the team takes on UIC.
