Feb. 26, 2004

CHICAGO - Luke Wilkens and Warren Vickers captured Cleveland State's second and third individual titles of the 2004 Horizon League Championships, as the Vikings stand in third place, two points behind UW-Green Bay for second. The Viking women stand in fifth place after two days of competition.

Wright State leads the men's championship with 246 points, while UW-Green Bay has 202. Cleveland State has 200 points, easily ahead of UW-Milwaukee's 138 and UIC's 122. Butler stands sixth with 92 points.

On the women's side, Wright State leads with 264 points, ahead of UW-Milwaukee's 245.5. UW-Green Bay is third with 242, UIC is fourth with 170.5, Cleveland State fifth with 107 and Youngstown State three points back in sixth. Butler is seventh with 59 points.

Wilkens won the event in 4:32.97, while teammate Daniel Thomasson, who won Wednesday's 1000 freestyle, finished third, posting a time of 4:34.27. Vickers, last year's Performer of the Meet, won the 200 individual medley in 1:51.77, while Pieter Pelser finished fourth in the same event in 1:53.73.

The Vikings also set a new Horizon League record in the 400 medley relay, breaking the old mark set by Wright State in 1999 by one one-hundredth of a second. The team of Pelser, Vickers, Luke Wilkens and Lyle Wilkens finished in 3:19.93, more than two seconds ahead of second-place Wright State.

Diver Chris Jones added a second-place finish in the 3m diving competition, scoring 447.90 points, while Lyle Wilkens added a sixth-place finish in the 50 freestyle in 21.09.

For the wome, Marianne Lionell had the highest finish for the Vikings, taking fourth in the 50 freestyle in 24.29. Tina Abbott added an eighth place finish in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.35, while the 400 medley telay team of Samantha Jones, Lionell, Marlene Przykling and Kirsty McKechnie, finished in fourth place in 3:57.40.

The championships continue on Friday with preliminaries beginning at 11:30 a.m. and finals starting at 7 p.m.