Nov. 29, 2011
Contact: Tim Ertle
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team won 11 of 13 events to close out team competition for the first semester on a high note, sweeping the Cleveland Dual Meet Invitational held at the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium on Tuesday (Nov. 29).
CSU defeated Canisius College 155-82 in addition to knocking off local foes John Carroll, 175-58, and Notre Dame College, 173-75.
The Vikings are now 9-3 and won't compete again as a team until their training trip to Florida in early January.
The diving events started the day and Kacey Cummings swept both, winning the 1-meter (276.65) and 3-meter (284.50) boards. Both times, a teammate finished right behind Cummings for second place. Alex DiMasso (204.80) was the runner-up in the 1-meter event while Liz Victor (223.45) and DiMasso (213.80) were second and third, respectively, on the 3-meter board.
With those scores - both of which were new season-highs - Cummings qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships on both boards for the second consecutive year.
The foursome of Erin Bender, Allison Pallija, Alexandra Johansson and Alice Sommerville won the first race of the day, the 200 medley relay, by turning in a 1:50.85.
Canisius won the 1,000 free, but Nikki Kolis (11:01.18) and Ashley Rossi (11:07.11) were second and third, respectively.
Jamie Puls (1:57.88), Amanda Pallija (1:57.94) and Emily Splain (2:01.33) went one-two-three in the 200 free to get the Vikings back on the right track.
Christine Kopacko (24.69) and Gretchen Hestley (25.37) followed that up in high fashion as they were the top two in the 50 free and helped widen the Vikings lead.
Joanna Olsson, fresh off a school record 4:19.57 in the 400 IM last weekend at the TYR Invitational, won the event in 4:32.82. Marissa Oakey of Canisius was sandwiched between Olsson and Megan Splain (4:50.20), as well as Hannah Morris (4:53.14) to give CSU three of the top four finishers.
Carys Behn picked up her first win of the meet in the 200 fly, touching in 2:07.93. Hestley's 2:15.61 was the third quickest in the event.
Kopacko's 53.74 in the 100 free earned her another victory with Puls (54.06) right behind her.
Johansson won the 200 back in 2:10.44, a time 5.2 seconds better than the next closest competitor.
Oakey won the 500 free in 5:06.51 to earn her second victory of the day, but Cleveland State's Kolis (5:24.30), Rachel Grove (5:28.54) and Emily Splain (5:35.00) were the next three to touch.
Sommerville closed out the individual races with the top time of 2:22.94 in the 200 breast. It was her first attempt in the event as a Viking, and her time was the fourth best in program history.
The meet ended with the 11th Viking victory of the day as Olsson, Kopacko, Behn and Liz Tamas won the 200 free relay in 1:39.20.
Four Viking women will compete in Atlanta at the 2011 AT&T Winter National Championships that begin on Thursday (Dec. 1) and conclude on Saturday (Dec. 3). As a team, the Vikings will head to Florida on Jan. 3 and the Vikings are scheduled to compete again on Jan. 7.
