Final Stats

Contact: Jeff Sattora

CHICAGO- In a meet that came down to the final event of the day, the Cleveland State women's 400 freestyle relay of Christine Kopacko, Gretchen Hestley, Jamie Puls, and Alexandra Johansson came through clutch, holding off the UIC Flames to help CSU win a 125-118 battle in Horizon League action.

The final dual meet of the regular season improved the CSU to 12-4 on the year, and 4-0 in Horizon League action. The 12 win season makes it four consecutive years that the women's squad has had double digit wins.

"It was back and forth the entire meet, our women really hung in there," Head Coach Wally Mortonsaid following the win. "It was very, very close."

"They were very purposeful when they warmed up and I thought they did a great job of adjusting quickly and performing at a high level," he added.

Multiple individual veteran swimmers came through clutch for the Vikings outside of the final relay, helping CSU pull out the win.

Individual winners on the day for the Vikings were two seniors, Alice Sommerville and Joanna Olsson. Sommerville won in the 50 freestyle (23.79) and 200 breaststroke (2:21.60), while Olsson took home first in the 400 IM (4:35.78) and 200 butterfly (2:07.61).

Morton knows he has a special class, and those two leading the way only reinforced his belief. 

"This win is a testament to our seniors, they're winners in every single way," Morton said on his outstanding 2013 class. "It was a great job by our two veteran seniors."

Jodi Turk (500 and 1,000 freestyles), Alexandra Johansson (50 freestyle), Christine Kopacko (100 freestyle), and Sammie Sposet (1-meter and 3-meter diving) also all had individual second place finishes to help provide depth and lead the Vikings.

As the team moves forward and looks ahead to the League Championships held in this same facility, Morton knows that he has a strong group, but they still have work to do.

"We've got a ways to go still, they're really tired from a tough week of training, but in three and a half weeks we'll come back here (to UIC for the League Championships) and light it up," Morton said.

The Vikings will now be off from competition until they travel back to UIC and compete in the Horizon League Championships from February 27th through March 2nd.