CLEVELAND, Ohio- With day three in the books, the Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team head into the final day in fourth place with 319 points. The Vikings competed in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, men's 1-meter diving, and the 800 free relay.
CSU had solid performances from senior Alex Johansson in the 100 butterfly, finishing fourth with a time of 55.90. Freshman Rowan Elbadry finished runner-up in the 200 free, just getting touched out with a time of 1:50.06. In the 800 free relay the Vikings finished fourth with a time of 7:31.27.
Head Coach Wally Morton talked about the teams swimming performance on day three. "Rowan leads the Vikings. The team had to overcome some illness. We have a flu going around with the women. We are kind of struggling with some challenges there, yet they never caved in. They never backed off. They did a great job led by Rowan Elbadry who went into the 200 free as one of the top qualifier just off the school record by three two-one hundredths of a second. She didn't swim quite as fast in the finals, but still finished in second place with a very strong finish. She led off the 800 free relay with one of the fastest times in the history of CSU swimming."
"Alex Johnasson finished her senior year in the finals, competed in the 100 fly. She went in the finals as the second top qualifier and still swam a great race, but just came up a bit short on the finish. But she is just a great, great competitor. Madisen Tretter had one of her best times in the season also. We just had contributions from a number of different areas. I wanted to mention about Christine Kopacko who really did have a disappointing swim yesterday. It was probably the first time she did not swim in the finals in four years. She really came back today in the 200 free to get into the finals. It was one of her lifetime best times. Jodi Turk got to swim in a relay for the first time in a Horizon League relay and did a very nice job. Rowan (Elbadry) did a very nice job leading it off. The one who had a fabulous time in the relay was Amanda Pallija and then Christine came back with a very solid swim also in the 800 free relay. Overall, I am very pleased on how the three days have went and am excited for my final meet of my coaching career," said Morton.
The Vikings will swim tomorrow on the final day of the 2014 HL Swimming and Diving Championship beginning with prelims at 10:00 a.m. and the finals will then start at 5:30 p.m. The schedule of events for tomorrow will be the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, women's 3-meter diving, and will finish out with the 400 free relay.
