Jan. 24, 2009
CLEVELAND, Ohio - -
Contact: Julie Farr DeLima
The Cleveland State University women's swimming and diving teams hosted a double dual with Youngstown State Wright State on Saturday, Jan. 24 in the final meet of the season. The women won three events, recorded 15 team or personal best marks of the season and set one new school record on a day that included a 124-108 win over Youngstown State and a 146-88 loss to Wright State.
With the split, the women improved to 7-8 in dual meets and recognized the contributions of seniors Katie Bellew, Kristine and Sandra Bunker, Heather Dietz and Kristina Nagy.
"The best thing about today is that we weren't the men's team and the women's team, we were the Cleveland State University Swimming and Diving Team," head coach Wally Morton said. "The win over Youngstown State for the women, after losing to them earlier in the year, was as big a win for them a the Wright State win was for the men. Carys Behn broke her own school record in the 500 free and we got a best time out of almost everyone on the team. We had convincing performances with great effort by our women."
The Vikings started off the day with a fifth-place finish in the 400 medley relay (4:10.49) by Emily Splain, Rachel Arzadon, Bellew and Nagy, but after that at least one Viking swam their fastest times of the season in nine of the next 10 events.
In the 1,000 free, Erin Green led CSU with a sixth-place finish, recording her fastest time of the year (10:54.84). Behn followed that up with a win in the 200 free (1:53.22) while Sandra Bunker recorded a best time of 2:03.78 to finish eighth.
In the 50 free, Whitney Hickey (25.24) and Nagy (25.46) finished second and fourth, respectively, both in their best times of the year. In the 200 IM, Maria Culjak (2:15.26) and Arzadon (2:19.83) finished back-to-back in fourth and fifth, respectively, with their fastest times of the season.
Hickey was CSU's top finisher in the 200 fly (2:14.21) with a third-place finish and Splain swam her fastest time of the year to lead the Vikings with a second-place finish in the 100 free (54.40).
Culjak led three Vikings in the 200 back, with a 2:14.30 and a third-place finish. Diana Mruk, who finished eighth, swam her fastest time of the year (2:30.80).
Behn picked up her second win of the day in the 500 free, breaking her own school record of 5:04.53 set on Nov. 7. Against Youngstown State and Wright State, she swam a 5:04.29 in bettering her own time.
In the final individual event of the day, Arzadon led a trio of Vikings with a third-place finish in the 200 breast (2:29.70). Green (2:31.56, 5th) and Brittany McCann (2:39.05, 8th) swam their fastest times of the year in the event.
During the meet's final event, Behn, Culjak, Hickey and Kristine Bunker paired up to win the 400 free relay in 3:35.84, the fastest time of the year for the Vikings. In the leadoff leg, Behn swam the fifth-fastest time in school history in the 100 free (52.99). On CSU's other relay team, Mruk swam the leadoff leg in her best time of the year (57.67) to help her team of Sandra Bunker, Brittany Tweardy and Frances Carrion to a sixth-place finish.
In the diving portion of the event, Heather Dietz finished third in the 1-meter event with her season-best total of 203.95 an was third in the 3-meter competition with 171.65 points. Liz Victor finished fourth in the1-meter event wit 145 points.
The Vikings have an off week before returning to action Feb. 6-7. The team travels to Valparaiso on Feb. 6 and competes at Chicago on Feb. 7.
