Contact: Jeff Sattora
CHICAGO- The Cleveland State Vikings' women's swimming team continued to swim strong on the second day of the Horizon League Championships Thursday evening, holding onto the top spot in the team standings halfway through the Championships.
The Vikings currently have 276 points for the Championships, holding a 16 point advantage over second place Green Bay.
Two familiar upperclassmen led the way for CSU on day two, as junior Alexandra Johansson and senior Alice Sommerville finished 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle. Johansson placed first with a time of 23.27, with Sommerville coming just behind in 23.30. The win for the junior was the Viking women's first individual victory of the championships, despite their first place team standing.
Head Coach Wally Morton was extremely proud of how the two team leaders raced in the 50 freestyle.
"That was really very very exciting," Morton said on the 1-2 finish. "When you 1-2 a race that is fantastic. They (Johansson and Sommerville) have been going back and forth and either of them could have won it."
Johansson and Sommerville weren't the only Viking women to swim well, as multiple CSU swimmers swam strong on the second day of the Championships.
Freshman Jodi Turk followed up her fifth place finish in the 1,000 freestyle yesterday with a second fifth place finish in the 500 freestyle Thursday, clocking a time of 5:00.56, her best time of the year. Nicole Kolis (5:02.77) and Bethany Robertson (5:03.72) also showed well in the 500 consolation finals for the Vikings.
Joanna Olsson and Gretchen Hestley also qualified and swam well in finals for the Vikings placing fifth and eighth in the 200 IM for CSU. Olsson led the way with the fifth place finish in 2:06.45, while Hestley followed her in eighth at 2:07.62.
Cleveland State had one relay participate on the day, as Alex Johansson, Alice Sommerville, Joanna Olsson, and Christine Kopacko teamed up to place third in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:47.71.
Overall Morton was pleased with how the team was able to perform all day long.
"I thought we did a very good job this morning putting ourselves in position to score points tonight," Morton said. `We hung tough, we had solid performances and in some cases exceptional."
"We had some real good highlights, we're excited both teams are doing well and we need to build on that in the next few days," he added. "Tomorrow is important to see where we're at with our depth,"
The Vikings will be back in action and ready to show that depth tomorrow when they look to build on their lead on day three of the Horizon League Championships.
