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Contact: Jeff Sattora

CHIAGO- The Cleveland State Vikings' women's swimming and diving squad completed an outstanding 2012-13 season Saturday night, placing second at the year-ending Horizon League Championships held at UIC.

The Vikings, who were at or near the top of the standings all week long, concluded Saturday's final session with 657.5 total team points. That total placed them just behind first place Milwaukee who finished with 688.5 for the Championships. This was the second straight season that the CSU women finished second in the meet.

For Head Coach Wally Morton, while his women's team didn't come out on top, he was very proud with how they performed, and that success can be pointed largely to his senior leaders.

"We have a spectacular senior class, we have so many incredible seniors on the women's side," said Morton on what helped lead them to a second place showing.

"Our senior women are winners in every way, in and out of the pool, and we had other people step up, just showing fantastic depth," he added. "I was very proud of the women getting runner-up."

Three of those seniors were finalists on the individual side of things for the Vikings' Saturday night, in Joanna Olsson and Gretchen Hestley in the 200 butterfly, and Allison Pallija in the 200 breaststroke. Olsson and Hestley both locked up top-four finishes in the fly with Olsson placing second in 2:06.09 and Hestley placing fourth in 2:07.25, while Pallija finished eighth in the breaststroke (2:27.98). 

One of those non-seniors who stepped up was junior Alexandra Johansson, who led the Vikings in the pool all week long, and continued her impressive showing Saturday night picking up her second individual victory of the Championships. Johansson touched the wall first in the 100 freestyle in a time of 50.82, giving her a new top time in the event for the year. She was followed in the event by classmate Christine Kopacko in fifth with a time of 51.74.

CSU had two other individual finalists on day four for the women in Nikki Kolis (17:05.81) and Jodi Turk (17:19.33) who finished fifth and sixth respectively in the 1,650 freestyle.

The Viking women concluded their 2013 season in the 400 freestyle relay, where Alice Sommerville, Christine Kopacko, Jamie Puls, and Alex Johansson swam to a third place finish (3:24.40).

Women's Standings (Final)
1. Milwaukee- 688.5
2. Cleveland State- 657.5
3. Green Bay- 647
4. UIC- 646.5
5. Wright State- 391
6. Youngstown State- 343
7. Valparaiso- 176.5