Jan. 21, 2006

Notre Dame, Ind. - The Vikings made things interesting in the early going against No. 19 Notre Dame on Saturday (Jan. 21), but the Irish took advantage of depth in the sprint freestyle events to claim a 142-96 victory at Rolfs Aquatic Center. Junior Bjorn Schantz improved on his Horizon League-best time in the 1,000 freestyle, while three other Vikings garnered wins.

Schantz rolled to win in the 1,000 with a time of 9:23.19, outpacing the runner-up by over seven seconds and topping his league-best mark by nearly eight-tenths (9:23.94).

Schantz's win, coupled with a top time by senior Daniel Thomasson and a third-place showing by freshman Nedim Nisic in the 200 free brought the Vikings to within two of the Irish at 28-26 in the team scoring through three events. Notre Dame was back in control after the next two events, however, recording a 1-2-3 finish in the 50 free and a 1-2 showing in the 200 IM. The Irish also claimed a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 free to all but seal the victory.

Senior Thatcher Carr claimed a win in the one-meter boards, scoring a 352.65, but the Viking came up short of a win for only the second time in his career with a second-place showing in the three meter (337.42).

Freshman Stef Potgieter, who joined the Vikings at the start of the spring semester, notched his first win with the team, scoring a 2:09.30 in the 200 breaststroke.

Schantz also picked up a second-place time in the 500 freestyle with a 4:37.20, while senior Pieter Pelser (200 back - 1:53.21), sophomore Dave Duecker (200 breast - 2:09.50) and Nisic (200 fly - 1:55.55) posted runner-up times as well.

"We had a lot of great swims, but we had a lot of inconsistencies, especially with our sprints," men's head coach Wally Morton said. "We are pretty tired. We haven't backed off since our training trip. I do think that we are a good enough team that we could have made it a lot closer than it was."

The Viking women's team will head to St. Francis on Jan. 28 before rejoining the men's squad at home against UIC and Youngstown State for senior day on Feb. 4.

Notre Dame 142, Cleveland State 96

400 medley relay UND (3:24.78)
1,000 free Schantz, CSU (9:23.19)
200 free Thomasson, CSU (1:42.41)
50 free Cavadini, UND (21.17)
200 IM Kegelman, UND (1:54.74)
1m diving Carr, CSU (352.65)
200 fly Brown, UND (1:53.70)
100 free Cavadini, UND (47.18)
200 back Bauman, UND (1:51.64)
500 free Davis, UND (4:35.45)
3m diving Bulfin, UND (346.12)
200 breast Potgieter, CSU (2:09.30)
400 free relay CSU (3:09.68)