Feb. 25, 2012
Contact: Tim Ertle
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Brown Deer, Wis. - School and league records continued to fall on Saturday (Feb. 25), the final day of the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships. When it was all said and done, the Vikings finished second - an improvement from the third place finish achieved at the league meet last season and the top finish in program history.
Host Milwaukee won the event with a score of 759.5 and the Vikings were next with a team score of 675.5. Green Bay took third with a score of 631 and was followed by UIC (566.5) and Wright State (402.5). Youngstown State placed sixth with a score of 364, Valparaiso was seventh with 137 points and Butler came in eighth with 124.
"I'm very proud of this team and it was great that we moved up a spot in the league this year," head coach Wally Morton said. "We had some injuries and illnesses and the normal adversity you go through as a team, but we always hung together and supported one another and the kids always gave everything they had. I'm very proud of what we accomplished.
"We're going to lose some outstanding seniors who demonstrated leadership in many facets - both in the pool and out. They're really an irreplaceable group who helped take our program to the next level and we'll certainly miss them."
One of those seniors, Kacey Cummings stole the show early, recording a score of 284.05 in the 3-meter diving prelims. She came back in the finals with a 300.95 - a new school record. The next closest competitor was Youngstown State's Casey Hill who was awarded a 272.70.
Cummings won the 1-meter diving event on Thursday (Feb. 23) with a score of 270.90 and was named the Female 'Diver of the Year'. This is just the third time in the last nine years that a female diver swept both events at the league meet.
Diving coach Rich Karban was elected as the Female `Diving Coach of the Year' - the sixth time in his career that he has received the honor. This year marked the eighth time in the last nine seasons under Karban that a Viking earned `Diver of the Meet' honors.
"After Kacey won the prelims, she just came back in the evening and stayed focused," Karban said. "Each dive she did, she kept getting a little stronger and pulling further away from the pack. She goes out a double-winner and a 'Diver of the Year'. She's always been very consistent and she's definitely one of the top divers we have ever had here."
Distance swimmers Nikki Kolis, Ashley Rossi and Erin Jajtner demonstrated the depth that paced Cleveland State all week in the 1,650 free. That trio combined for 25 team points.
Kolis led the way with a school-record time of 17:19.10 which was good for third. Rossi took 12th with a 17:57.99 - one spot ahead of Jajtner and her season-best time of 18:04.75.
Freshman Hayley Smith took eighth in the 200 back, touching in a career-best 2:04.56. In the prelims, she swam a 2:03.41 which broke a school record set by Samantha Jones in 2005.
That race was followed by the 100 free - an event that saw Vikings Carys Behn (50.95) and Christine Kopacko (51.49) take second and fifth, respectively, to combine for 31 team points. Both of those times were top times on the season.
Allison Pallija was the top Viking in the 200 breast, taking 10th with a time of 2:22.38 - a time just .19 seconds off the school record.
Joanna Olsson chipped in another second place finish, this time in the 200 fly. She swam a 2:03.09 to contribute 17 team points to the score. Emily Splain was fourth in the consolation final of the 200 fly with a career-best time of 2:09.37 - good for an additional five points.
The night closed with the Vikings winning the 400 free relay in 3:22.32 - breaking the old school record of 3:23.89 which was set last year by the same quartet in the same order. Behn started the race with a 51.24 split and have way to Alice Sommerville. She turned in a 50.28 before Olsson swam her leg in 51.15. Alexandra Johansson finished it off with a 49.65 split down the stretch to give the Vikings their final victory of the meet and an NCAA `B' time.
