Oct. 3, 2008

Final Stats

Notre Dame, Ind. - -

Contact: Julie Farr DeLima

The Cleveland State Viking Swimming and Diving team kicked off the 2008-09 season on Oct. 3 at the Dennis Stark Relays hosted by the University of Notre Dame. The men, who took only five swimmers to the meet, finished fourth out of five competing schools with 106 points and also won two races.

"We got outstanding swims from everybody," head coach Wally Morton said. "Our swimmers were going back-to-back-to-back against fresh teams every race and they did a great job."

The winning 400 IM relay of junior Todd Winchell, senior Marko Milenkovic, freshman Mark deSwardt and senior Nedim Nisic, a 2008 Summer Olympian, finished in 3:37.17, more than seven seconds ahead of second-place Notre Dame (3:44.44).

The Vikings also posted the winning time in the 400 butterfly relay as sophomore Stephen Grove, Nisic, Winchell and deSwardt paired up to finish in 3:30.06, just out-touching Oakland University (3:30.11).

"Our effort was there," Morton said of his team's first meet of the season. "We were looking for great individual efforts and we got them. We competed well and reached those goals with great team camaraderie."

Cleveland State swimmers also finished second in both the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays.

The Vikings return to action on Oct. 18 in their home opener against St. Francis University in the Busbey Natatorium.