Feb. 24, 2005
Brown Deer, Wis. - The Cleveland State men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished up the second day of competition at the Horizon League Championships on Thursday night (Feb. 24), with the men's team holding their ground in second place (272) and the women standing pat in fifth (146). Both team's wrapped up the session with strong showings in the 400 medley relay.
The men's team posted a strong win in the 400 medley relay, with the team of Pieter Pelser, Gabriel Linton, Luke Wilkens, and Johan Norling swimming to a 3:22.62. The women's relay team of Samantha Jones, Marianne Lionell, Kirsty McKechnie and Deanna Raedel set a Cleveland State record of 3:57.01 to finish fourth in the race.
Senior Thatcher Carr added a win in one-meter diving, dominating the event with a 358.70, topping the second-place finisher by over 60 points. After earning a seventh-place seeding in the 200 IM preliminaries, Pelser tallied a second-place time of 1:52.49 in the finals.
Five Vikings scored points in the 500 freestyle finals, with sophomore Bjorn Schantz scoring a third-place time of 4:34.33 to pace Wilkens in fifth (4:35.14), Daniel Thomasson in eighth (4:46.86), Brady Lusk in 10th (4:42.76) and Khaled Elgamal in 14th (4:45.66). Senior Ryan Klaus was the Vikings' top finisher in the 50 freestyle with fourth-place time of 21.01. Norling followed him in eighth place with a time of 21.16. Dave Duecker won the 200 IM B finals with a ninth-place time of 1:53.90.
"We had a good showing today," men's head coach Wally Morton said. "We got some real fast times and ended the day on a great note with a win. We need to carry that momentum into tomorrow."
Jones put up the women's team's best showing on the day, recording a second-place time of 2:08.70 in the 200 IM. Lionell swam to a fourth-place time of 24.16 in the 50 freestyle, while Raedel scored a personal best time of 24.89 in the preliminaries. McKechnie paced the Vikings in the 500 freestyle with a seventh-place time of 5:08.85.
"Sam could have won that event," women's head coach Mike Lehto said, referring to Jones' showing in the 200 IM. "She was faster in prelims and was unsure of herself once she got in the finals. I think she will be much faster and much more comfortable tomorrow in the back."
Wright State still holds the lead in the men's championship (307), while UW-Green Bay paces the women's scoring (291).
The third session begins Friday (Feb. 25) morning at 11:30 a.m. with prelims for the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back and will conclude at 7:30 p.m. with the finals for those events, plus the 800 freestyle relay. Trials for the men's three-meter diving and the women's one-meter diving will take place beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Women's results
UWGB - 291
WSU - 278
UWM - 276
UIC - 202
CSU - 146
YSU - 124
BU - 76
Men's results
WSU - 307
CSU - 272
UIC - 243
UWGB - 221
UWM - 193
BU - 82
