Feb. 23, 2011
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Contact: Dan Carr
CLEVELAND, OHIO - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team started the first day of the 2011 Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday (Feb. 23) by breaking a conference record and ended it in first place.
Justin Hill, Alex Lewis, Berry Thompson and Mike Marsico broke the Horizon League record in the 200 freestyle relay, winning the event in 1:19.36. The time was .14 better than the old record of 1:19.50, set by CSU in the 2009 conference championships.
"Our men came out and set a record in the first event of the meet," head coach Wally Morton said. "It was a spectacular start to the meet and it set the tone for the rest of the night."
CSU also took first in the 1,000 freestyle, with Mark de Swardt winning the event in 9:06.34, well ahead of the runner-up, Wright State's Pawel Grzebala (9:17.51). de Swardt, who has never lost a race at the Horizon League Championships, improved his overall record in the league finals to 7-0, including 3-0 in the 1,000 free.
"[de Swardt] swam about 10 seconds faster than he did in the event last year at this meet," Morton said. "It was a great performance."
Three other Vikings scored points in the 1,000 free, with Graham Thoresen also swimming a top-eight time, taking seventh in 9:30.55. Alex Cohara placed ninth (9:39.92) and Pieter Ritz took 10th (9:41.63).
"What I liked about our team was that it was a team effort," Morton said. "Everybody, whether they were swimming in their events tonight or not, were on the deck cheering everybody on. There was incredible school spirit and incredible support for each other."
The Vikings took second in the only other event of the day, the 200 medley relay. The team of Alasdair Shillito, Deni Gasparin, Lewis and Hill finished in 1:29.65.
Cleveland State is currently in first place with a team score of 122. They lead second place Milwaukee (111) by 11 and third place UIC (106) by 16.
"It's a great start to our meet, but most of our competition is still ahead of us," Morton said.
The 2011 Horizon League Championships will resume Thursday (Feb. 24) morning with the swimming preliminaries starting at 10:00 a.m.
