Nov. 22, 2009
Contact: Renee Adam
Evanston, Ill. - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team ended competition at the TYR Invitational in fourth place with 489.5 points. The Vikings beat defending Horizon League champions, UIC who ended the meet in sixth place with 408 points. Michigan State (970.5), Northwestern (806.5) and Kenyon College (505) placed one, two and three respectively.
"We performed very well today, especially with not having a lot of rest between swims and swimming so many events over the course of the weekend," head coach Wally Morton said. "The team held together very well and finished the invitational off strong with today's performances."
Mark deSwardt led the Vikings through the final day of competition, winning the 1,650 free in 15:27.19, which is a "b" cut for the NCAA championships. deSwardt also took home a second place finish in the 200 fly, touching in a time of 1:51.16.
Pierre De Waal also placed in the 200 fly for the Vikings, finishing in 1:52.16, good enough for a fourth place finish.
Deni Gasparin and Jakub Dobies placed third and ninth respectively in the 200 breast, each recording top times in the league so far this season. Gasparin finished in 2:10.03 in the championship final, while Dobies finished in 2:04.82 in the consolation final.
Graham Thoresen swam the programs tenth fastest time in the 1,650 free when he finished in 16:08.06.
The top relay for the men was the 400 free relay, which swam an excellent time to finish sixth in 3:04.24. Dobies, Berry Thompson, Stephen Grove and Mike Marsico teamed up to swim the best time of the year, beating Horizon League foe, UIC who finished in eighth.
"Based on the performances that we had this weekend I am excited to see what the rest of the season has to bring for us," Morton said. "We will have another good meet on Tuesday when we face Ohio State, who is one of the top teams in the nation and it will be interesting to see how well we can swim after having three tough days of competition this weekend."
The Vikings will close out the year when they travel to Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday (Nov. 24) to face Ohio State at 5:00 p.m.
