Swimming and Diving Hit the Pool Over Weekend

Women: Cleveland State 169.5, Youngstown State 130.5

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio-  The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team had a strong showing in their first dual meet of the season, defeating Youngstown State, 169.5- 130.5, on Friday evening.

Head Coach Wally Morton was pleased on the way the team swam against the Penguins along with his thoughts on Rowan Elbadry's 200 free pool record.

"It was a total team effort.  We had excellent first, second, third, and fourth winners. Congratulations to Rowan Elbadry for setting a new pool record with a time of 1:53.37 in the 200 freestyle.  She was excellent today for us," said a very happy Morton.  

Sophomore Jodi Turk and freshman Rowan Elbadry had a pair of first place finishes in two swimming events.  Turk won the 1,000 free with a time of 10:37.92 and in the 500 free with a time of 5:10.66.  Elbadry finished first in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.37 and in the 100 free with a time of 52.49.  Elbadry's 200 freestyle time of 1:53.37 was a new natatorium pool record at Youngstown State.

Other Cleveland State swimmers that had key roles and first place finishes were sophomore Dayna Kiekebosch.  She earned a time of 1:08.98 in the 100 breast.  Senior Alex Johansson was in a tight 50 yard freestyle race with YSU's Jana Janson, where they both ended up tieing for first with a time of 25.09.  Freshman Madisen Tretter won the 200 breast with a top time of 2:30.20.  In the 1-meter dive sophomore Samantha Sposet had a top score of 253.57.  Cleveland State had an impressive first place finish in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:38.41 to finish the evening out.

Regardless of the first win, Morton knows moving forward, that the team will need to continue to improve.

"I am very proud on what they accomplished today.  We still have many things to improve upon and will continue to get better week to week."  
The Viking men will open the season, with the woman on continuing dual meet play in the pool, as the swim team will return home for their home opener against Horizon League foe Green Bay on Saturday (Oct. 26) at noon.

Women: Cleveland State 169.5, Youngstown State 130.5

Youngstown State senior Laura Paz won three events and junior Ashley Dow won twice in a dual meet against Cleveland State on Friday night at the Beeghly Natatorium.

Paz won the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:07.70, the 100 fly with a time of 57.92 seconds and finished her evening winning the 200 IM clocking in at 2:16.16. She started the night on a good note helping the 400-yard medley relay squad to a first-place finish with a time of 4:00.45.

Paz teamed up with Dow, Hannah Reynolds and Jana Janson to win the medley relay.

Dow posted a first-place time of 59.44 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke and a top time of 2:06.31 in the 200 back event.

Janson tied CSU's Alex Johansson for first place in the 50-yard freestyle as the pair both finished in 25.09 seconds. Janson placed second in the 100 free with a time of 54.58 seconds.

Bec Stafford took first place in the three-meter dive with a score of 244.05.

Therese Stevens finished second in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:58.73, Reynolds was second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.38.

Tricia Vallinger was second in the one-meter dive with a score of 237.52 and second in the three-meter at 215.92.

Megan Ciampa was third in the 1,00-yard freestyle with a time of 11:00.50 and the 200 back with a time of 2:14.02, Reynolds was third in the 200 breast with a time of 2:34.16 and Chelsea Malone was third in the 100 back at 1:03.08.

Cleveland State won the dual by a score of 169.5 to 130.5.

The Penguins return to the pool next Friday against Green Bay at 5 p.m. at the Beeghly Natatorium. The Guins are selling t-shirts to raise money to donate to promote Breast Cancer Awareness.

Women: Oakland 131, Duquesne 130; Richmond 150, Oakland 111 – Second Place Finish

PITTSBURGH - The Oakland 200-yard freestyle relay team of Allison Bellford, Kyra Rietveld, Jill Carps and Nikki Flynn gave the Golden Grizzlies a critical victory in the final event Saturday afternoon lifting Oakland to a 131-130 win over Duquesne a three-team meet at the Towers Pool. Richmond out-scored Oakland 150-111 and Duquesne 149-112 to win the meet.

Trailing Duquesne by eight points heading into the final event, the Golden Grizzlies overtook the host Dukes in the final event thanks to the 'A' team's first-place finish and the 'B' team of Melissa VanderMeulen, Kelsey Stark, Lauren Wynalda and Bronte Stewart edging Duquesne's second squad. Flynn's 23.80 split on the anchor leg was the fastest among all swimmers in the final relay.

"Nikki Flynn has really matured a lot in the past year, and we couldn't have done it without what she did today," Oakland head swimming and diving coach Pete Hovland said. "She really tracked `em down in her anchor legs and that was the boost we needed."

Freshmen Patricia Aschan and Takara Martin were two-time individual winners for Oakland. Aschan was victorious in both long-distance freestyle races, winning both the 1,000 (10:25.89) and 500 free (5:09.26) for the second consecutive outing.

"Patricia coming in as a freshman and swimming the toughest two events for us and doing as well as she did was a big help today," Hovland said.

Martin swept the breaststroke events, taking the 100 breast in 1:06.13 and the 200 breast in 2:24.34. Hovland was not only impressed by Martin's first-place efforts, but the entire breaststroke group. VanderMeulen finished third in the 100 breast (1:07.43) and Rachel Waite added a third-place showing in the 200 breast (2:27.18).

"Our three freshmen all had big swims in the breaststroke," Hovland said.

Along with her relay win, Flynn won the 100 freestyle for the second time in as many races with a time of 52.50. She also added a second-place individual finish in the 200 free (1:55.71) and was the anchor in Oakland's 400 medley relay that took second; Flynn teamed with Rietveld, Martin and Julia Vela for a time of 3:55.39.

Oakland returns to action at home Saturday, Oct. 26 when the Golden Grizzlies host the Illinois women's swimming and diving team at the OU Aquatic Center at 1 p.m. ET.

Women: Milwaukee 191, Grand Valley State 112

MILWAUKEE - Emily McClellan broke one pool record and the 200 medley relay broke another as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming & diving team kicked off the 2013-14 season with an impressive 191-112 win over Grand Valley State University at the Klotsche Natatorium Saturday afternoon.

Milwaukee dominated all day long, winning all but three events in the first meet of the season.

Results were delayed due to a technical issue with the scoring system following the meet.

"It was a good start for us and a good starting point," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. "In a meet like that, that's what we're looking for. You're looking to see where you currently are and where you can go from there and we learned a lot about both teams yesterday.

"On the women's side, we knew we had some depth and we knew we were going to be able to swim some people in some off events and you really say that yesterday. Sierra in the 200 IM, Natalie in the 200 fly, Emily in the 100 fly, we were able to throw some people in different events and get some positive results and that's good for us going forward in knowing what we have."

The Panthers started their season with a new pool record in their very first event. Becky Yokosh, McClellan, Leah Winckler and Anna Yontz combined to swim the 200 medley relay in an impressive 1 minute, 45.71 seconds, nearly a full second faster than the previous Klotsche record set just one year ago.

Milwaukee's second team took second in the event as Erika Pliner, Natalie Johnson, Mary Kuyvenhoven and Diana Diel finished at 1:49.96 for second.

UWM continued its dominance right out of the gates as sophomore Abby Duke won the 1000 free, touching the wall first in 10 minutes, 58.95 seconds. Kaela Ropson was right behind in third at 11:01.46.

Sophomore Kelsey Abbas continued the trend, taking first in the 200 freestyle with a winning time of 1:56.03.

Milwaukee took four of the top-five spots in the 100 backstroke. Yokosh ran away with the event with a winning time of 58.37, more than two seconds ahead of second place. Pliner (1:01.00) was third, freshman Kiersten Seidel (1:01.73) was fourth and Emily Dean (1:02.77) placed fifth.

Then it was McClellan's turn to set a new Klotsche record. The senior standout cruised to victory in the 100 breaststroke with an NCAA B-cut time of 1:01.47, breaking her own pool record set last November by over a full second. Senior Lindsey Verhulst just missed taking runner-up, touching the wall at 1:07.89 for third.

The Panthers went 1-2 in the 100 free as Yontz won the race in 52.64, followed closely by Diel at 52.90.

Johnson won the 200 butterfly in 2:07.67. Yokosh took first in the 200 back at 2:07.15, winning by nearly two and a half seconds. Verhulst took the top spot in the 200 breast at 2:26.14 and McClellan won the 100 fly with a winning time of 57.92.

Sierra Townsend easily placed first in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:07.63 with freshman Kristin Zablocki taking second overall in 2:12.93.

In the 500 free, Milwaukee again took the top two spots. Abbas came in first at 5:10.78 while Hilary Woldt was right behind at 5:15.83 for second.

In diving, sophomore Rachel Margis was second on both boards, scoring 244.12 on the one-meter and 255.15 on the three-meter.

With the meet already in hand, UWM closed the day out with an exclamation point in the 200 free relay. Yontz, Johnson, McClellan and Diel just missed another pool record for the Panthers with a first-place finish in 1:36.69, nearly two seconds ahead of second place.

"The women are just going to be a tough team," Clements said. "They have the right combination of old and new and we really didn't have a weak event yesterday. Going into next week, you're going to see a lot of those women moving around and just how deep we actually are."

Milwaukee hits the road for the first time this season with a pair of conference meets next weekend. The Panthers will take on Valparaiso Friday afternoon in Indiana before heading to Dayton, Ohio to take on Wright State Saturday.

Men: Grand Valley State 183.5, Milwaukee 114.5

MILWAUKEE - Junior K.J. Heger broke his own school record in diving to headline the season-opening meet for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's swimming & diving team in a 183.5-114.5 loss to Grand Valley State University at the Klotsche Natatorium Saturday afternoon.

Results were delayed due to a technical issue with the scoring system following the meet.

"It was a good start for us and a good starting point," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. "In a meet like that, that's what we're looking for. You're looking to see where you currently are and where you can go from there and we learned a lot about both teams yesterday.

"On the men's side, the men got beat up a little bit but that's going to happen a little bit for us this year. As young as we are, finding that right combination is going to take us a little while. Where we started yesterday is not where we are going to be at the end of the year. Actually, we were actually faster yesterday than we were at last year's first meet and having more new faces and getting faster overall is a step in the right direction. We just happened to come up against a really seasoned team that is swimming at a high speed.

"We're looking to figure out our identity and who's going to swim for us where. By the end of the season, you'll see those individuals there for us but it's going to take a little time."

Heger, the Horizon League Diver of the Year last year, picked up right where he left off by winning both boards in convincing fashion. The junior broke his own school record on the three-meter board with an outstanding score of 378.97, over 150 points ahead of second place. Heger also won the one-meter with an impressive output of 334.05 points, again miles ahead of second place. Both scores were NCAA Zone Qualifying times.

Milwaukee took the top-two spots in the 1000 freestyle as sophomore Nic Halverson cruised to victory with a winning time of 9:50.70, with junior Kenny Stelpflug coming in comfortably second at 9:57.39.

Brother Tim Halverson followed that effort up with a win of his own, touching the wall first in the 200 free in 1:43.84. Senior Mike Lucchesi was third at 1:44.67.

Tim Halverson also had a strong showing in the 500 free, taking second in 4:45.55, while Nic came in second in the 200 IM with a time of 1:57.52.

Senior Chris Jenkyns finished runner-up in both the 100 backstroke (53.47) and the 200 back (1:58.92).

Freshman Nick Menninga placed second in the 50 free in his first collegiate meet with a time of 21.66 and also tied for second in the 100 free at 48.39.

Also impressing in his collegiate debut, freshman David Chokran was second in the 100 breast, touching the wall at 1:00.15, before also taking second in the 200 breast in 2 minutes, 11.84 seconds.

In the final event of the day, Lucchesi and freshmen Evan Kuker, Noah Dalluge and Menninga combined to finish the 200 free relay with a time of 1:26.17 for second place.

Milwaukee hits the road for the first time this season with a pair of conference meets next weekend. The Panthers will take on Valparaiso Friday afternoon in Indiana before heading to Dayton, Ohio to take on Wright State Saturday.