Dec. 7, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Julie Farr DeLima

deSwardt Hits NCAA "B" Cut At Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The group of swimmers representing Cleveland State at the Ohio State Invitational wrapped up the three-day event with another solid effort from Mark deSwardt that included an NCAA "B" cut and the second-fastest time in school history in the 1,650 freestyle. On the weekend, CSU finished 5th with 194 points.

"Mark deSwardt in the 1,650 free was our swim of the day," head coach Wally Morton said. "He's just a freshman and I truly believe he's just scratching the surface. His time in the 1,650 was only about a second off the record and I consider the record-holder (Henk Markgraaff) CSU's greatest distance swimmer. In our other swims today, we learned a lot about where people are at. We were happy with Todd Winchell's effort in the 100 free and Marko Milenkovic and Deni Gasparin had two good times. None of our coaching decisions this weekend were made on scoring points, but to improve our team so we'd be better at the end of the year."

The highlight of the day came during the 1,650 freestyle race with freshman Mark deSwardt swimming the event for the first time in his college career. deSwardt swam the second-fastest time in school history (15:20.75) for a sixth-place finish with his time falling in the NCAA's "B" cut range.

Three additional athletes posted their top times of the year in the 100 free including Jakub Dobies (45.88), Todd Winchell (47.50) and Mike Marsico (47.55). In the 200 breast, Deni Gasparin recorded his season-best time of 2:05.80.

Five Men Record Top Times In Final Day At Akron AKRON, Ohio - The group of Cleveland State men's swimmers team that completed at the Zippy Invitational this weekend, wrapped up the event with a 10th place finish and 255 points. In the final day of competition, five different athletes recorded their season-best times.

"To see our freshmen come on strong in the final day is so encouraging," assistant coach Andrew Hancock said. "The weekend was a great learning experience for us. We really learned a lot about ourselves individually and as a team what we need to work on to be successful at the end of the year. We were small in numbers but big in spirit and they got behind each other and saw their hard work pay off."

Swimming the 1,650 free for the first time this season, Pieter Ritz clocked a solid 16:35.79. In the 200 back, both Colin Hanner (1:53.44) and Derek Butts (2:04.58) recorded their season-best times while Volkmar Buar (2:01.43) and Travis Lombardozzi (2:02.15) swam new season-bests in the 200 fly.

The team will focus on final exams before heading to Florida for a training trip later in the month. The Vikings' next competition is set for December 20 in Florida.