CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team defeated UIC 181-114 on Saturday afternoon at Robert F. Busbey Natatorium.
The Vikings (9-5, 3-2 HL) had first place finishes in the 200 medley relay, led by Johansson, Kiekebosch, Elbadry, Kopacko with a time of 1:48.67. In the 200 free Rowan Elbadry had a top finish with a time of 1:54.27. In the 100 back junior Hayley Smith finished atop with a time of 59.55. The Vikings continued to control the meet, where Meghan Miller finished atop in the 200 butterfly with a wall touch time of 2:08.24. Alex Johansson continues her tremendous final year with a top time of 24.02 in the 50 free.
Elbadry continued to perform at a high level with a top time of 52.82 in the 100 free. Smith earned her second first place win of the day coming in the 200 back. She finished with a time of 2:07.19. Sophomre Jodi Turk picked up a top finish in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:09.08. Johansson recorded her second top finish of the day in the 100 fly (57.83). The Vikings finished off the meet on a strong note winning the 400 free relay with a time of 3:31.20. CSU were led by Elbadry, Kopacko, Pallija, and Johansson.
Cleveland State had second place performances from Sammie Sposet in the 3-meter dive with a score of 229.80 and in the 1-meter scoring a 266.18. In the 1,000 freestyle Turk swam a competitive 10:40.88. Senior Amanda Pallija finished behind Elbadry in the 200 freestyle with a fine time of 1:57.46.
Freshman sensation Madisen Tretter finished runner-up in the 100 breastroke with a time of 1:08.96. Christine Kopacko finished behind Elbadry in the 100 free with a time of 53.24. Sophomore Jillian Rothgery took second in the 200 back with a time of 2:11.33. In the 200 breast Dayna Kiekebosch had a terrific swim of 2:28.36.
Head Coach Wally Morton spoke about an emotional senior day and about the last home swim meet of the season.
"It was a privilege to be a part of a great institution like Cleveland State University and mostly with these young people. These young people are outstanding students in very tough majors. They are doing a great job in the classroom almost all of them are graduating in four years. They are phenomenal to work with and this is a special team. Every one of the teams I've been involved with since I have been here in my 39 years as head coach have been special. But this group is they are very caring, very polite as the way they go about things, and are really supportive of each other and of me and the assistant coaches. Win or lose I am really proud of our team, but fortunately we are winning most of our meets. It looks like we are in a position now with nine wins that we can have a chance for double digit wins. We are going to do everything we can for that to happen in our last two meets."
(On senior day)- "It was a special occasion because our seniors (combined men and women) have been a part of the most successful men's and women's combined program in the history of the school. It's just not even debatable. Every one of their years they've been on their teams have double digit wins, highest win-loss percentage. The men won a conference championship. The women have marched right on up every year getting better and better until almost winning it last year. Just an extraordinary group of seniors and as extraordinary as they are in terms of their swimming accomplishments, they are extraordinary on what they do academically. What a great group of athletes. Al Shillito is the conference swimmer of the year last year. Alex Johansson is arguably one of the best swimmers in the Horizon League. Alex Lewis and on and on, and on and all of the other great seniors we have. It's hard to single one out. 16 seniors, two divers and 14 swimmers are really going to be missed."
(On the UIC meet)- "On what was really impressive is we got off to a great start with diving. We knew the men's meet was going to be the closer meet and it was a close meet. The score was really close when you consider you score 19 points per each event. It was less than three events difference in terms of the total score. What a great women's team. What exemplify's them is their top quality people from top to bottom. Their quality depth is outstanding. Alex Johansson is the quality leader of our team and she had a fantastic meet. She really got us off to a quick start in the 200 medley relay.
Alex (Johansson) really went on to be very impressive in the 50 free and comes back in the100 fly and wins that very convincingly. She then anchors the 400 free relay and blows them away. Alex Johansson is the swimmer of the meet in terms of the women. Freshman Rowan (Elbadry) had a very nice meet too, winning the 100 free and the 200 free, along with being in two winning relays also. Other seniors that stepped up was Amanda Pallija who was on our 400 free relay and looked very impressive in all of her events in the 200 free and 100 free. She had a fantastic meet and did a great job. Jodi Turk also had a really good meet and had a close second in the 1,000 and won the 500 free. Other winners, Meghan Miller looks better and better in every single meet. Christine Kopacko is very important in the sprints. You win swimming with sprinting and Kopacko, Rowan (Elbadry), and Johansson are the three best sprinters in the conference. They always give us a chance. Overall, a meet I will always remember for the rest of my life and two quality wins against a quality opponent."
The Vikings will be back in the pool on Friday (Feb. 7) as the team will travel to Valparaiso. Swimming and diving will begin at 7:00 p.m.
