Dec. 10, 2001

Akron, OH - With its sights set firmly on the conference tournament in March, the Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team continues to build upon its early-season success, taking third-place at the Zippy Invitational in Akron last weekend. The Vikings (1491.00) brought home 12 first-place honors while finishing behind Clarion (1736.50) and St. Bonaventure (1638.00) in the 10-school field.

Sophomore Warren Vickers (Durban, South Africa/Durban) has been nothing short of outstanding this season, and his performance at the Zippy Invitational was even stronger than usual. He captured three individual first-place finishes and four first-place finishes as the anchor on relay teams.

Vickers posted conference-best times while winning the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:40.42 and the 200-yard individual medley in 1:54.41. He also won the 100-yard freestyle in :45.63, just in front of teammate Gustavo Barrios (Panama City, Panama/Kiski School), who swam a :46.22. Vickers also secured four relay victories for the Vikings in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:24.10), the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:05.38), the 800-yard freestyle relay (6:53.90) and the 400-yard medley relay (3:27.80).

A senior co-captain, Barrios joined Vickers on three of the victorious relay teams (200-free, 400-free and 400-medley). Barrios also took second-place in the 100-yard butterfly with a :50.87.

Junior Thiago Lazarini had another good showing, winning the 500-yard freestyle (4:39.58), taking second in the 1,650-yard freestyle (16:41.06) and third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.42).

Freshman Gabriel Linton (Nora, Sweden/Rudbecksskolan) continues to excel, winning the 100-yard (:58.63) and 200-yard (2:08.39) breaststroke events in Akron.

The men will continue to train during the holidays, and will be back in action when they host Duquesne and Xavier on Jan. 19, at 1 p.m.