Jan. 12, 2008
Complete Results
Contact: Gene Natale, Jr.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State won 10 of 13 events score a trio of dual meet wins against Canisius (195-40), Xavier (175-48), and Duquesne (172-47) at a quad meet on Saturday afternoon at the Busbey Natatorium.
The Vikings kept the momentum built up from a very solid training trip which featured a dominant performance at the Holiday Invitational in snapping a two meet dual losing streak that dated back to a Thursday, Nov. 20th loss to Ohio State, 147-82.
"I am very happy with how we competed, winning all of our dual matchups," head coach Wally Morton said.
Cleveland State scored second and third place finishes in all three events that were not won by a Viking swimmer. Of the individual event winners, there were several standouts, notably Stephen Grove, Todd Winchell, and diver Dan Baiko.
Baiko scored yet another sweep in the diving events, winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives with respective scores of 257.93 and 343.8. He scored over 200 points more than the runners-up in each event, and had some of his career best dives during the 3-meter competition.
Stephen Grove put up an impressive 21.92 time in winning the 50-yard freestyle, as well as helping the men's 200 yard medley and 200 yard freestyle relays to victory. Grove's leadoff split of 21.82 in the 200 free relay proved vital to that team's success in the event.
Winchell swam a very respectable 51.8 in winning the 100 yard butterfly, and also contributed to the winning 200 medley relay.
The meet featured the Viking debut of freshman Deni Gasparin who joins the team from Zagreb, Croatia. Like last year's mid-season addition to the team, Jakub Dobies, Gasparin made his Viking debut memorable by scoring an impressive win in the 100 yard breaststroke (56.64).
"We are very excited about Deni," Coach Morton said, "He's someone who will really help us out in several events."
Gasparin now has the second best time in the 100 breaststroke this season for the Vikings, behind teammate and school record holder Dobies. Gasparin also recorded the Vikings' second best time this season in the 200 yard IM (1:55.58) while finishing second in that event.
Also winning events for the Vikings were Dobies, who swam a 47.71 to win the 100 yard free; Zvonimir Androic in the 100 backstroke (53.81); Khaled Elgamal in the 1,000 yard free (10:02.36); the 200 medley relay team of Winchell, Stef Potgieter, Grove, and Mike Marsico (1:37.12); and the 200 free relay team of Grove, Dobies, Johan Norling, and Nedim Nisic (1:26.96).
"The times today were not outstanding since everyone was tired from our training trip," Coach Morton said, "But I like the effort that I saw today."
The Vikings will be back in action next Saturday, January 19, when they travel to Dayton, Ohio for a dual meet against Wright State University. The meet is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. EST.
