Jan. 14, 2012
Contact: Tim Ertle
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ROCHESTER, Mich. - A pair of wins from Berry Thompson and Josh Gonzalez as well as a Justin Kermack victory helped the Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team come away with a split at the Oakland University Tri-Meet in Rochester, Mich. on Saturday (Jan. 14).
The Vikings, now 8-4, defeated Xavier 165-72, but fell to Oakland 134-103 at the Oakland University Aquatic Center.
"When you come off a training trip as we did, you aren't going to swim as well as you typically do," head coach Wally Morton said. "We've put our kids through a lot in the last couple of days had we really haven't had a day off in two weeks.
When you take all of that into account, I'm really pleased with how we swam," the coach added. "Those are two quality teams we went up against and everyone competed well. No one gave up, even though we're in a torn down state. This was a good meet for us."
Thompson won the 50 (20.95) and 100 free (45.55). Teammate Justin Hill was just behind him in the short sprint, touching in 21.17.
Neither Oakland nor Xavier had male divers but Gonzalez posted the top scores on both the 1-meter (287.78) and 3-meter (314.93) boards.
Kermack won the 200 fly by a full two seconds when he touched in 1:52.19.
In addition to Hill's second place finish, Nathan Grant was second in the 200 free (1:42.42), Alasdair Shillito took second in the 200 back (1:52.75) and Brian Ferro was the runner-up in the 200 breast (2:05.40).
Alex Cohara took third in the 1,000 free (9:45.75), one spot ahead of Graham Thoresen (9:51.95).
Grant also posted a fourth place finish in the 200 breast (2:10.76).
The Vikings closed the meet with a second place finish in the 400 free relay (3:07.62).
The Viking men will be back in action on Friday (Jan. 20) when they host Miami (OH) at 4:00 p.m. The following day, they'll join the women and take on Horizon League foe Wright State at 1:00 p.m. in Fairborn, Ohio.
