Nov. 21, 2010
Complete Results
Contact: Dan Carr
EVANSTON, Ill. - The 400 freestyle relay team of Carys Behn, Alice Sommerville, Joanna Olsson and Alexandra Johansson set a Horizon League and CSU record with a second place finish in the 400 free relay (3:24.51), highlighting the women's swimming and diving team's final day at the Northwestern TYR Invitational on Sunday (Nov. 21).
Olsson also set the conference mark in the 400 IM on Saturday. That time was also a CSU best. Olsson also recorded school-best times in the 500 free, 200 IM, 400 medley relay, 200 free relay, 800 free relay and 200 medley relay for a grand total of eight Cleveland State records in the past three days.
The 400 free relay team qualified for an NCAA `B' cut and was just barely edged for first by Northwestern, which won with a time of 3:24.47.
"Alexandra Johansson brought up the final leg in that race, and that's a lot of pressure to put on a freshman," head coach Wally Morton said. "We like putting the pressure on her though - she's keeps getting better every time, and she has the potential to become a very good swimmer."
Sommerville, who finished the weekend with six school records (she was on all five record-breaking-relay teams and also set a new CSU mark in the 100 fly), was named the invitational's "High Point Scorer." She also won the 50 fly on Sunday, finishing in 25.18.
Behn, the other swimmer to be on all five record-setting relays, placed third in the 100 free (51.66).
"I thought this was the greatest combined effort of diving and swimming at a three-day invitational in the history of the program," Morton said. "Top to bottom, without any exceptions, we had great performances from everyone on our roster."
A number of other Vikings had a very good final day at the invitational. Rachel Arzadon's 2:25.92 time in the 200 breast is the fifth-fastest mark in school history. Allison Pallija's 2:27.75 mark in the same race is good for sixth-best in the CSU record book.
Ashley Rossi finished the 1,650 free in 17:37.70, the second best time ever by a Cleveland State swimmer.
CSU finished the three-day event third out of six teams with 562.5 points. Northwestern won the meet with a team score of 1495, followed by Iowa State (805), Cleveland State, North Dakota (463), Kenyon (356) and UIC (215.5).
"We had some fast swimming, some good performances and we had fun doing it, which is the key," Morton said. "I'm very pleased with the team. This was a great weekend for our program."
Up next for the Vikings is the City College Meet, hosted by CSU on Tuesday, Nov. 30. Cleveland State will compete against Canisius, Notre Dame (OH) and John Carroll, with the diving events scheduled for 3:00 p.m. and the swimming events set for 5:00 p.m.
