Jan. 11, 2010

Contact: Renee Adam

Cleveland, Ohio - Cleveland State freshman Pierre De Waal won Horizon League swimmer of the week honors for the period of Jan. 4- Jan. 10 after taking home a first, third and fourth place finish at the San Juan Sprint Invitational this past Saturday (Jan. 9).

The league office made the announcement on Monday (Jan. 11).

In the second event of the meet, the Cape Town, South Africa native won the 50 back, touching in a time of 31.19. De Waal placed third in the 50 butterfly, swimming a 27.97 and finished fourth in the 50 free (26.32).

"Pierre has been training at a very high rate of speed and for long distances in practice at San Juan," head coach Wally Morton said. "His performance at the meet was very good versus Syracuse and I am looking forward to seeing what he brings the rest of the season."

The Vikings claimed a 24-12 victory over Syracuse in their first meet since November 24, 2009, improving their record to 11-2.

This is the first weekly award for De Waal and the sixth for the Vikings this season, the most by any Horizon League team this year.

CSU returns to action when they host Duquesne and Xavier on Saturday, January 16 in the first meet of the 2010 calendar year in Busbey Natatorium. The meet is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.