Dec. 1, 2005
Oxford, Ohio - Heading into the first day of the Miami Invitational on Thursday (Dec. 1), the Viking men's and women's swim teams had yet to compete in either the 1,650 freestyle or the 800 free relay this season. CSU showed no signs of intimidation, however, putting up some of the fastest split times of the season.
Senior Kirsty McKechnie led off the women's 800 freestyle relay with a CSU season-best 200 yard time of 1:56.11. Junior Marianne Lionell (1:56.60), sophomore Deanna Raedel (1:58.94) and senior Wendy Peel (2:00.70) followed successively with 200 yard legs that topped their season best times as well.
In the women's 1,650 free, freshman Sandra Bunker notched a strong showing in her first collegiate mile, swimming the trip in 18:35.72.
"It's good to see us come out with some of our faster times this year," women's head coach Mike Lehto said. "It is tough to get a good gauge on how well we are doing after only two events, but I like the way we came out and competed tonight."
On the men's side, junior Bjorn Schantz posted strong times swimming in both the mile and the second leg of the 800 free relay. He opened with a fourth-place showing in the 1,650 with a time of 15:50.22, while his 200 freestyle time of 1:40.08 in the relay was .20 seconds quicker than his Horizon League season best time.
Additionally, sophomore Brady Lusk notched a 16:35.97 in the mile for 15th overall, while sophomore Pat Burda (16:59.48 - 21st), sophomore Khaled Elgamal (17:04.56 - 24th), freshman Volkmar Baur (17:21.28 - 25th), junior Joe Badziong (17:29.00 - 26th) and sophomore Taylor Dopuch (17:31.67 - 27th) swam fast times as well.
The 800 free relay team of senior Daniel Thomasson, Schantz, freshman Marko Milenkovic and Elgamal swam to a fourth-place finish, with Milenkovic posting an impressive showing in the third leg with a 200 time of 1:41.74.
"The competition is tough," men's head coach Wally Morton said, "but we are putting up some fast times. Bjorn and Marko were both extremely quick tonight. This is going to be a great opportunity for us to work on getting better."
The men's team currently stands in third place overall, while the women's squad finds themselves in 12th.
The second day of competition on Friday (Dec. 2) begins with preliminaries at 9:00 a.m. and finals at 6:00 p.m. at Nixon Aquatic Center.
