CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State University men's and women's swimming & diving teams both came up short in their regular-season finale, dropping dual meets to defending Horizon League champion Oakland Saturday afternoon inside the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium.
The CSU men fell, 188-112, while the Viking women lost a 197-103 decision.
Senior Molly McNamara shined as the programs celebrated their 16 seniors across both teams. McNamara swept the butterfly events, winning the 100 in 55.95 seconds and finishing first in the 200 in 2:04.07. Her win in the 200 was especially impressive, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the runner-up. Classmate Cassandra Oltman was third in the 100 fly in 57.97 seconds.
McNamara also swam on CSU's two top-finishing relays, both of which took second.
CSU's top 200 medley relay squad consisted of freshman Riley Drummond, sophomore Alana Cartwright, McNamara and senior Claudia Zido. The quartet finished in 1:45.22. The Vikings took second, third and fourth place in the 200 medley relay.
Sophomore Lexie Kostelnik had a nice showing in the distance freestyle events Saturday. She won the 500 in 5:10.93 and was the runner-up in the 1000 in 10:44.15. Junior Gabriella Marinelli was third in the 500 in 5:14.02.
Marinelli led off CSU's runner-up 400 freestyle relay squad and was followed by sophomore Irena Weclawiak, McNamara and Zido. The squad finished in 3:33.14.
Zido and Weclawiak finished second and third, respectively, in both the 100 and 200 freestyle. Zido finished the 100 in 53.43 seconds and the 200 in 1:55.39 while Weclawiak finished in 53.56 and 1:55.55.
CSU had a strong showing in the women's 200 backstroke as junior Madi Jaszcz (2:06.39), senior Michaela Bargardi (2:07.48) and junior Chuchu Yang (2:07.87) finished second through fourth, respectively. In the 100 back, freshman Riley Drummond (58.33), Oltman (59.01) and Yang (59.04) took third through fifth, respectively.
Sophomore Libby Smith finished third in the 200 breaststroke in 2:22.76. She was fourth in the 100 (1:06.19) behind Cartwright (1:05.45), who took third.
Sophomore Erica Henrichsen took third in 3-meter diving with 211.35 points.
Sophomore Jack Krusinski led the way for the CSU men in the swimming events. He won the 200 breaststroke in 2:03.18 and took second in the 100 in 56.90 seconds. Junior Tyler Stevenson was third in the 100 in 57.70 seconds.
Sophomore Matt Akers placed second in both diving events, scoring 305.85 in the 1-meter and 303.45 in the 3-meter, with the former representing an NCAA qualifying score. Senior Curtis Roden was third in the 1-meter with 268.73 points.
Krusinski also played a role in an impressive 200 IM for CSU. Sophomores Dominik Niedzialek (1:55.56) and Timothy Kubacki (1:55.67), Krusinski (1:56.43) and senior MacJilton Lewis (1:57.13) finished second through fifth, respectively.
Niedzialek added two more runner-up finishes on the day, taking second in the 1000 freestyle (9:36.49) and the 200 backstroke (1:49.75). He came up just .04 seconds short in the latter race.
Kubacki added two runner-up finishes in addition to his effort in the 200 IM. He took second in the 500 freestyle in 4:37.90 and the 100 backstroke in 51.09 seconds.
Junior Matthew Martin was the runner-up in both butterfly events, finishing the 100 in 49.90 seconds and the 200 in 1:51.36. Classmate DJ Arslanian was third in the 100 in 50.57 seconds.
Senior Jason van der Touw had runner-up finishes in both the 100 freestyle (46.45) and 200 freestyle (1:40.99). In the 200, he was immediately followed by junior Erwan Mahoudo (1:43.30) and freshman Mason Romstadt (1:43.67).
Junior Dominic Poletta (20.84) and Arslanian (21.19) took second and third, respectively, in the 50 free.
Van der Touw, senior Jared Stergar, Arslanian and Poletta finished second in the 200 medley relay in 1:30.63. Like their female counterparts, the CSU men took second, third and fourth place in the 200 medley relay.
Van der Touw also led off CSU's top 400 free relay and was followed by Mahoudo, senior Sean Mulvin and Arslanian. The quartet finished in 3:03.36.
CSU will next head to the Horizon League Championships, hosted by IUPUI Feb. 13-16.