Results

Jan. 21, 2012

Contact: Tim Ertle

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FAIRBORN, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving team won half of the 16 events against Wright State - but it was the Vikings depth that helped them defeat the host Raiders 171-123 in a Horizon League matchup on Saturday (Jan. 21).

"I was really happy with our depth," head coach Wally Morton said. "We won our share of events, but in the ones that Wright State won, we did a nice job of finishing strong and picking up points from second and third place finishes."

The Vikings won the final four events of the afternoon to earn the victory and improve to 10-4 overall and 3-0 in the Horizon League.

"We knew it would be tougher to perform today after competing yesterday," Morton said after his men's team defeated Miami (OH) on Friday (Jan. 20). "I was proud of the way the guys competed."

That was evident early as the Vikings finished strong to edge the Raiders in the first race of the afternoon. The CSU foursome of Alasdair Shillito, Nathan Grant, Alex Lewis and Justin Hill won the 200 medley relay in 1:35.48, just ahead of WSU's foursome that finished in the 1:36.15. Hill's 20.68 on the last leg was more than a second quicker than WSU's fourth swimmer.

Wright State's Pawel Grzebala won the 1,000 free in 9:43.77 but CSU's Jon Querciagrossa was the runner-up in 9:48.62. Pieter Ritz put forth an effort that Morton singled out to place third in 9:51.93.

Hermanus Botha (1:43.09) and Adam Carnell (1:44.83) - both of Wright State - were the first two to finish the 200 free but CSU's Berry Thompson (1:45.29), Shillito (1:48.14) and Graham Thoresen (1:49.60) finished three-four-five to score for CSU.

WSU won the next two races - the 100 back and 100 breast - before CSU earned its first individual title of the day with a Justin Kermack win. He took the 200 fly in 1:53.60 with teammates Mason Allen (1:58.91) and Brad Bielak (1:58.94) directly behind him.

Botha won two of the next three events - the 50 (21.39) and 100 free (46.39) - but both times CSU had the runner-up and third place finishers.

Thompson was second in the 50 free with a 22.01 and the runner-up in the 100 free with his time of 47.35. Lewis was third in the 50 free when he covered the distance in 22.28 and Hill was third in the 100 free when he touched in 47.38.

Sandwiched between the Botha wins was the 1-meter diving event. Wright State didn't field any male divers so CSU's Josh Gonzalez was first with a 268.95 ahead of Matt DiMasso's 247.42. Freshman Sean Tyrrell was third with a 148.72.

Shillito won the 200 back (1:52.90) and Colin Hanner (2:00.10) was third to help the CSU cause.

WSU's Davynn Peffer won the 200 breast in 2:08.56, but CSU's Brian Ferro touched second in 2:11.35.

Grzebala won his second race of the day when he won the 500 free in 4:43.80. Three Vikings were right behind him to limit the damage: Grant (4:49.97), Thoresen (4:50.98) and Querciagrossa (4:51.09).

That would be the last event of the meet that would go to the Raiders.

Lewis won the 100 fly in 51.81 with Kermack the runner-up in 52.54.

Gonzalez (278.92), DiMasso (259.12) and Tyrrell (192.22) repeated the order from the 1-meter diving event in the 3-meter diving event before Kermack won again in the 400 IM.

His 4:09.22 was almost three seconds quicker than Eric Ahlden, the winner of the 100 back. Alex Cohara was third in the 400 IM with a 4:13.13 and Ryan Blankenship was fifth with a 4:23.85.

The Vikings closed with three of the top four finishes in the 400 free relay, including the winning team of Hill, Thompson, Shillito and Lewis who finished in 3:06.52 - almost 14 seconds ahead of WSU's top foursome.

"We had a lot of good things happen and we still have things to work on," Morton said. "We have two weeks until our next meet and then we have some time before the league meet. I'm encouraged with where we are at and especially our depth, and I know we'll work hard to improve going forward."

The Vikings are idle until Feb. 4 when they host UIC on Senior Day, the final competition before the Horizon League Championships begin on Feb. 22.