Oct. 30, 2010
Complete Results
Contact: Dan Carr
OXFORD, Ohio - The CSU men's swimming and diving team remained unbeaten after its meet with Miami (Ohio) on Saturday (Oct. 30), though they did so in an unusual way. The Vikings and the RedHawks swam to a 150-150 tie, marking only the second time in head coach Wally Morton's 30-year tenure with the program that a meet has ended in a draw.
"You don't get many ties in this business," said Morton, who graduated from Miami in 1970. "To get a tie against your alma mater is really a difficult feeling. Today they honored my old swim coach, and I was happy to see that, but at the same time I also wanted us to win. It was a strange day for me, and the tie is just a strange result."
The only other time CSU has had a meet end in a draw during Morton's tenure was in the 1989-90 season. This was also just the fifth tie in the history of the men's swimming and diving program at Cleveland State.
With three events left on the day, it appeared the Vikings (4-0-1) would earn their fifth victory of the season. CSU was up by 30 points, but Miami swimmers placed first and second in the 100 fly and 200 IM to leave the 400 free relay as the deciding race.
"Deni Gasparin led off our relay and just fell about two seconds behind [Miami's Chris Gunnels]," Morton said. "We never recovered, and that ended up being the difference in the race."
Miami won the 400 free relay in 3:08.04, edging CSU's 3:10.42 and causing the meet to end in a draw.
A number of swimmers turned in good performances for the Vikings. Mark de Swardt, who has yet to lose an individual event this year, swept the 1,000 free (9:32.09), 200 fly (1:51.08) and the 500 free (4:35.94).
Gasparin took first in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, finishing in times of 59.03 and 2:10.12, respectively. He also helped the 400 medley relay team to a first place finish with a time of 3:28.39. Alex Lewis was also on the 400 medley relay squad, swimming the final leg in under 47 seconds to ensure CSU's victory.
Berry Thompson took home wins in the 50 free (21.01) and the 100 free (46.73).
Josh Gonzalez led the way in the diving competitions, placing second in the 1-meter event (262.57) and third in the 3-meter dive (286.43).
"Josh is off to a good start," Morton said. "If he can get a little more consistency in his dives, he'll be really tough to beat by the end of the year."
Only the men competed in Saturday's meet, as the women's swimming and diving team was off this weekend. It was the first time this season the men had competed without breaks in between events for the women's events, and Morton was pleased with how his team performed.
"Given the circumstances, I thought we swam well," Morton said. "There was not a lot of time between events and some of our swimmers didn't get too long of breaks, and they still performed well. This meet told me a lot about our toughness and our resilience, and I'm happy with what I saw."
Both the men and the women will be back in the water on Friday (Nov. 5), as the Vikings travel to Columbus for meets against Ohio State and Denison. That competition is set to begin at 5:00 p.m.
