Nov. 14, 2009

Final Stats

Contact: Renee Adam

Cleveland, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team cruised to another victory over all three of their competitors today, when they topped Niagara, St. Bonaventure and league foe Valparaiso. The Vikings beat Niagara 173-66, St. Bonaventure 153-82 and Valparaiso 181-40.

"We had a good solid performance by the women's squad today," head coach Wally Morton said. "The results are definitely a product of the hard work and focus that the team is putting in during training. We finally have the team healthy and all of them in a shape where they can perform at their best. If they take care of things in practice then the meets will take care of themselves."

Mark deSwardt led the Vikings with three individual victories, first in the 1,000 free (9:27.25), then in the 200 fly (1:53.25) followed by the 500 free with a time of 4:36.33.

"We had a convincing win over St. Bonaventure which is a team that has been hard for us in the past," Morton said. "This is a young team and they just continue to get better and better as the season goes on."

Berry Thompson won the 50 free for the third time this season as he broke 21 seconds, touching in a time of 20.98. Thompson also placed second in the 100 free with a time of 47.12.

Todd Winchell, Deni Gasparin and Zvonimir Androic also recorded first place finishes for the Vikings, Winchell in the 200 free (1:43.89), Gasparin in the 200 IM (1:54.56) and Androic in the 200 back (1:54.41).

Both the 400 medley and the 400 free relays finished first for CSU, with the team of Androic, Winchell, Thompson and Jakub Dobies finishing in 3:27.62 to win the 400 medley and Stephen Grove, Keith Everhart, Justin Hill and Mike Marsico teaming up for the 400 free, finishing with a time of 3:10.71.

Josh Gonzalez paced the Viking divers, placing first in the 3-meter board with 306.70 points and second in the 1-meter diving event with 254.80 points.

Pierre De Waal had a strong meet today finishing second in the 200 free (1:44.10) and the 200 fly (1:54.50), being out touched by Winchell in deSwardt in each race respectively.

Graham Thoresen recorded season best times in the 1,000 free finishing in third with 9:39.05 and finishing second in the 500 free with a time of 4:40.47. Brad Bielak also had a personal best performance in the 200 fly when he touched third in a time of 1:56.44.

"I am excited for the tough competition coming up over the next weeks facing UIC who is the defending Horizon League champion as well as Michigan, the defending Big Ten champion," Morton said. "This will be good for us to see how we compare to some big name schools and give us something to work towards the upcoming weeks."

The Vikings will return to action when they travel to Evanston, Ill. for the Northwestern University Invitational from Friday (Nov. 20) to Sunday (Nov. 22).