Feb. 28, 2010
Contact: Renee Adam
Chicago, Ill. - The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team capped off a record setting season by taking home a fifth place finish at the Horizon League Championships. The 368 points fifth place finish marks the highest in the past few years by a CSU team.
"This was the best performance that we have had in many years at the Horizon League Championships," head coach Wally Morton said. "It is indicative of the hard work and continued improvement that we have had over the season. The depth of our program this season was just spectacular and you could see that by how many swimmers we had in the finals of all events."
The Vikings were led by Joanna Olsson on the final day of competition as she took home a third place finish in the 200 fly. Olsson finished with a time of 2:04.92 while Courtney Maddock finished 16th in a personal best time of 2:15.91.
Michelle Ferro and Alice Sommerville both brought home sixth place finishes, in the 200 back and 100 free respectively. Ferro finished the 200 back in the sixth fastest time in school history, 2:07.07. Sommerville finished the 100 free in a time of 52.41.
Emily Splain swam in the consolation final of the 200 back, finishing with her best time of the season, 2:15.17.
Ferro and Rachel Arzadon both swam in the consolation final of the 200 breast, with Ferro improving on her third fastest time in CSU history, recording a 2:24.40. Arzadon swam the sixth fastest time in school history, a personal best of 2:27.40.
Kacey Cummings and Liz Victor both competed in the 3-meter diving event for CSU, both competing in the consolation final. Cummings finished 11th with 204.95 points and Victor placed 16th with 183.85 points.
CSU ended the meet with the 400 free relay, swimming the best time of the year when Carys Behn, Sommerivlle, Olsson and Jamie Puls finished in a time of 3:28.36.
The Green Bay Phoenix won the Horizon League title with 804 points, Milwaukee came in second with 713, Wright State third with 694.5 and UIC in fourth with 574 points. Youngstown State (259.5), Butler (116) and Valparaiso (109) rounded out the rest of the results.
"We moved up from last year in terms of team standings," Morton said. "We are getting better every year and this year we made major improvements with 14 dual wins and an outstanding performance at the conference meet."
Carys Behn was the highest finisher for the Vikings, finishing the 200 free in second place and reaching the finals in all of her events. Sommerville and Olsson were also able to compete in the finals in all of their events in their first Horizon League Championship.
The Vikings ended the meet with three individual school records and three relay records, Carys Behn (1,000 free), Alice Sommerville (50 free, 100 fly), 200 free relay, 400 medley relay and the 800 free relay.
