Nov. 5, 2005
Dayton, Ohio -
The Wright State swimming and diving teams proved to be too much for the Vikings on Friday (Nov. 4) night in Dayton, as the Raiders out-dueled the men's team, 137-104, and topped the women's squad, 133-64.
The Viking women's squad got down early to the Raiders and was unable to mount a comeback of their own despite some strong individual showings. Marianne Lionell swam to team-bests in both the 200 breaststroke (2:28.89) and the 200 freestyle (1:57.92) but was out-raced in the events by strong performances from the Raiders.
"This was kind of the performance that I expected tonight," head coach Mike Lehto said. "It has been a struggle for us to swim down here in the past and tonight was no exception. We have a young team which needed to overcome the long bus ride and swimming in a very unfamiliar environment. The pool is slower than the water we are used to swimming in and that threw us out of our normal competitive rythym.
"Wright State is a very good program, one that I expect will come to Cleveland in February and challenge hard for the Horizon League title."
Katie Bellew and Kristine Bunker placed second and third, respectively, in the 200 fly with times of 2:17.10 and 2:19.51, while Kirsty McKechnie added third-place showings in the 1,000 freestyle (10:50.82) and the 200 IM (2:17.20).
Junior Marianne Lionell claimed the 200 Breast in a season-best 2:28.89 but her best performance may have come in the 200 Free, which she was swimming for just the first time this season. She finished third in 1L57.92, bettering the squad's previous best time this year by more than seven seconds.
The men's meet featured a potential preview of this year's Horizon League Championship bout, as the Vikings kept the heat on the Raiders the entire meet but were unable to come out on top.
CSU started out strong in the first event, as the 400 medley relay team of Pieter Pelser, Marko Milenkovic, Ari Markle and Johan Norling jumped out to a two second advantage through the first three legs, but the Raiders' Alex Dolgov made up the difference in the final leg, swimming the final 100 freestyle in 47.20.
"That relay really set the tone for the rest of the meet," head coach Wally Morton said. "We swam pretty well all night but the difference was that we lost a couple of close events which really hurt is in the end.
"Wright State seemed fresher and we looked tired," Morton continued. "And we should look tired because we we have been training real hard this month and we didn't break our training schedule just because we had a meet. We need to train hard right now so that we can be ready when the conference championships come at the end of the year. That is what matters.
"Everybody gave it their best tonight and that's all I can ask. This is a difficult pool to swim in because it is so different from the one we practice in," Morton added.
The Vikings would continue to pressure the Raiders, as Bjorn Schantz and Daniel Thomasson scored back-to-back wins in the 1,000 freestyle (9:29.11) and the 200 free (1:44.83), respectively, to give Cleveland State a 28-27 lead in the meet. Wright State would respond in the following event, however, going 1-2-3 in the 50 free to jump back to a 43-31 advantage.
CSU would close the gap two events later, as Thatcher Carr (318.75), Dan Baiko 221.85) and George Chesney (201.07) would place first, third and fourth in one-meter diving, respectively, to trim the deficit to 61-50. After Wright State took wins in the next two events, the Vikings notched wins in the subsequent three, with Pelser claiming the 200 backstroke (1:51.97), Schantz taking the 500 free (4:36.94) and Carr finishing on top in three-meter diving (317.25) to get to within 15 points, but wins by WSU in the final two events thwarted any chance of a comeback.
Pelser's win in the 200 Back was significant because he claimed the honor despite swimming with a badly sprained ankle that he suffered earlier in the week.
The Vikings remain on the road on Saturday (Nov. 5) when they head to Xavier for a 1:00 p.m. meet.
