Feb. 7, 2009
CHICAGO, Ill. - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
The Cleveland State University men's swimming and diving teams (10-5) traveled to UIC for the final dual of the regular season on Feb. 7, falling to the Flames 132-102. Mark deSwardt and Jakub Dobies both had solid days. deSwardt won three events and set a new UIC pool record and Dobies picked up two wins.
"Our men put together back-to-back days of excellent performances, which is a good sign that we'll perform well at the upcoming Horizon League Championships," head coach Wally Morton said.
CSU started off the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay as Todd Winchell, Marko Milenkovic, Stephen Grove and Mike Marsico touched in 3:27.74. The Vikings also took third in the event with Zvonimir Androic, Deni Gasparin, Travis Lombardozzi and Keith Everhart (3:31.91).
Mark deSwardt shone in the 1,000 freestyle, winning the event and setting a new UIC Natatorium record. deSwardt's time of 9:13.74 was shy of his CSU school record (9:05.64) but bettered the previous UIC pool record of 9:21.42.
In the 200 freestyle, Winchell captured CSU's top finish with a third-place showing (1:44.43) and Grove logged the team's best finish in the 50 freestyle (21.65, 4th). Dobies picked up his first win of the day in the 200 IM (1:54.55).
deSwardt won his second event during the 200 butterfly in season-best time and the fourth-fastest time in school history (1:50.16). Dobies' second victory came in the 100 freestyle (46.28). In the 200 backstroke, Zvonimir Androic picked up a win for the Vikings in 1:54.26, beating out teammate Colin Hanner (1:57.40).
The final win for deSwardt came in the 500 freestyle (4:32.46) when he beat the second-place finisher by seven seconds. Two CSU swimmers earned podium finishes in the 200 breaststroke with Milenkovic (2:06.73) and Deni Gasparin (2:08.52) finishing second and third, respectively.
CSU's 400 freestyle relay team took second in the final event of the day as Grove, Marsico, Winchell and Dobies finished in 3:06.99.
In the diving events, Matt DiMasso won the 1-meter event with 245.47 points and finished second in the 3-meter event with 228.90 points.
The day also included a season-best performance by Hanner in the 200 free (1:46.36).
The Vikings are off until the Horizon League Championships begin on Feb. 25.