Oct. 23, 2010
Contact: Dan Carr
GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team picked up one of its biggest wins in program history on Saturday (Oct. 23), defeating Horizon League foe Green Bay, 126-117.
"Green Bay has historically been the dominant team in the Horizon League," head coach Wally Morton said. "They have won the conference five years in a row, and they have been one of the top teams in the Horizon League for at least the past 10 years.
"This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, win in the history of our women's swimming and diving program."
While the women won all of the swimming events except the 200 breast, Green Bya won both diving events and earned enough second place finishes to cause the meet to still be in doubt going into the final event, the 400 free relay.
The team of Alex Johansson, Christine Kopacko, Emily Splain and Carys Behn proved strong enough to take the win, but not without a little bit of drama. Behn entered the pool on the final leg of the relay about 50 yards behind Green Bay's Parker Wolf. Not only did Behn catch up with Wolf, she passed her and gave the Vikings the win at 3:34.43, just beating Green Bay's 3:34.72, and guaranteeing CSU the meet victory.
"All four of the women on that relay team did a great job, but Carys especially was the star of the meet," Morton said.
Behn also won the 500 free (5:08.24) and the 200 free (1:54.05) events.
Two other Vikings turned in strong performances. Joanna Olsson won three individual events, placing first in the 1,000 free (10:30.65), the 200 IM (2:08.61) and the 200 fly (2:08.66). Alice Sommerville won the 50 free (24.44) and the 100 free (52.62) and also helped the 400 medley relay team to a victory (3:57.97).
"For us to win, this marks a huge step for our program," Morton said. "We had phenomenal performances by everybody, and I feel really good about how our season has started."
The women will take a week off before their next competition, a meet against Denison and Ohio State in Columbus on Friday, Nov. 5. That meet is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m.
