Nov. 24, 2009
Contact: Renee Adam
Columbus, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team was handed its first dual meet loss since October 31 tonight when the Vikings fell at Ohio State, 120-73. The team was led by Mark deSwardt and Jakub Dobies who each recorded individual event victories during the meet tonight.
"We are coming off the TYR Invitational and we expected to be challenged in today's meet," head coach Wally Morton said. "Under the circumstances we had some good swims tonight from certain swimmers, such as Mark and Jakub."
Following his outstanding performance at the TYR Invitational this past weekend, deSwardt continued to put out strong swims as he won the 500 free in a time of 4:31.41, out touching teammate Graham Thoresen by eight seconds. deSwardt also placed second in the 1,000 free (9:16.07), behind Ohio State's Mark Neiman, who is nationally ranked right behind deSwardt in sixth place in the 1,650 free.
"After swimming so many distance events this past weekend Mark really lost his legs," Morton said. "Despite all of that I thought he had great swims tonight and really forced the Ohio State squad to put their best times on the board."
Dobies took home a first place finish in the 100 breast with a time of 55.74, and also recorded the fastest split in the 200 medley relay for the Vikings.
The 200 medley relay was comprised of Dobies, Todd Winchell, Stephen Grove and Berry Thompson who worked to record a solid time of 1:32.24.
The lone winning relay for the Vikings was the 800 free relay of Alex Cohara, Brad Bielak, Mike Marsico and Pieter Ritz who finished in 7:31.02.
"Now we can go back to hard training and prepare for the spring semester schedule," Morton said. "When we come back in January we will have the Holiday Invitational to get the team back into competition and ready for the rest of the season."
CSU will now wait until the new year to return to action when they compete in the Holiday Invitational on January 9, 2010 at a site that is yet to be determined.
