Jan. 26, 2008

Complete Results

Contact: Gene Natale, Jr.

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team remained undefeated at home this season with a 137-89 victory over Niagara this Saturday at Busbey Natatorium.

"Overall we are very pleased with the effort," head coach Wally Morton said, "We have a long way to go, but we are making progress."

The Vikings won 10 of 13 events while scoring second and third place finishes in many of the events to swim to their 10th team victory of the season.

The tone was set early as the Vikings scored a 1-2 finish in the 200 medley relay. The winning team (1:36.30) included Ari Markle, Stef Potgieter, Todd Winchell, and Marko Milenkovic.

Meanwhile, the swimmer of the day was Dave Duecker, as he swam a personal best time in the 400 individual medley (4:01.96). In winning the event he came very close to breaking the school record of 3:59, which was set back in 2003 by current Viking assistant coach Andrew Hancock.

"Duecker had the swim of the day, his best ever swim, and it puts him in great position now that we will be starting to taper down our training in preparation for the league championships," Morton said.

Khaled Elgamal was another standout, as he won both the 1,650 and 500 freestyle with respective times of 16:55.50 and 4:52.51. He won both swims despite the fact that he was noticably sick in the days leading up to the meet.

Midseason newcomer Deni Gasparin won a breaststroke event for the third meet in a row as he took the title in the 100 breast (56.82). His time was only two tenths of a second from setting a new season best.

In the diving events, Dan Baiko was edged out in the 1-meter as he finished second (248.5). He followed that second place finish with a win in the 3-meter dive with a score of 311.7. The diver has now won the 3-meter dive for three weeks straight.

"We are making good progress right now," Morton said, "Next week we will begin to taper down our training and prepare for the conference meet, and I am pleased with where we stand as a team."

Also scoring wins for the Vikings were Todd Winchell (100 fly, 50.73); Zvonimir Androic (100 backstroke, 54.04); and the 200 free relay team of Mike Marsico, Nedim Nisic, Johan Norling, and Winchell (1:27.65).

The Vikings return to action next week for a Senior Day dual meet against UIC. The meet will begin with diving events at 12:00 p.m. with swimming events to follow at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2 at Busbey Natatorium.