Dec. 4, 2003
AKRON, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's team grabbed three new meet records on the first day of competition at the Zips Invitational in Akron on Thursday. Luke Wilkens and Warren Vickers were involved in two of the new meet marks, with each setting an individual mark and teaming with Pieter Pelser and Lyle Wilkens to set a record in the 400 medley relay. The men's team stands third after the first day, while the women's team is in ninth place.
Wilkens set his individual mark in the 500 freestyle, winning in 4:35.53, breaking the old meet record of 4:39.58, set by former Viking Thiago Lazarini. Daniel Thomasson finished second in the same event, posting a time of 4:36.05. Vickers won the 200 individual medley in 1:52.40 to claim a meet record, by nearly two seconds. To cap off the day, the men's 400 medley relay team of Pelser, Vickers, Luke Wilkens and Lyle Wilkens collected a win in 3:22.80, finishing four seconds ahead of the B relay team of Todd Hostutler, Gabriel Linton, Ryan Klaus and Thomasson in second place.
Kirsty McKechnie had the top finish for the women's team on the day, winning the B final in the 500 freestyle in 5:06.67 for ninth place. Tina Abbott was 16th in the same event with a time of 5:15.80.
Ball State leads the men's meet after the first day with 472 points. Clarion is in second with 381, with CSU in third, five points behind. On the women's side, Akron has 398 points to lead the field. CSU is in ninth place with 93 points.
The meet continues on Friday with preliminaries beginning at 9 a.m. in Akron. Friday's finals will begin at 6 p.m., and the meet concludes with the final day of action on Saturday.
