Women's Swimming And Diving Travels To Saint Francis (PA)
    CSU Will Have Their First Home Meet On Saturday October 24
    Mark deSwardt was part of both second place finishes at the Dennis Stark Relays.

    Mark deSwardt was part of both second place finishes at the Dennis Stark Relays.

    Oct. 13, 2009

    Contact: Renee Adam

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    SETTING THE SCENE: The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team will continue their 2009-10 season when they travel to Loretto, Pennyslvania to face Saint Francis in a dual meet on Saturday (Oct. 17). Only the women's team will be participating in the meet, and it will begin at 1:00 p.m.

    REVIEWING LAST WEEK: Both the men and the women recorded fifth place finishes at the Dennis Stark Relays last weekend, here is a brief recap of the meet.

    MEN (0-0) - 5th at Dennis Stark Relays (Oct. 9, South Bend, Ind.):
    The Viking men competed in just six events at the relays, finishing second in two. Sophomore Mark deSwardt was part of both relays, teaming with Jakub Dobies, Todd Winchell and Brad Bielak for the 200 free relay (1:29.05). deSwardt worked with Thoresen in the 1,000 free ending with a time of 9:27.09.

    WOMEN (0-0) - 5th at Dennis Stark Relays (Oct. 9, South Bend, Ind.):
    Freshman Joanna Olsson led the women's team, swimming in six of the seven events that the team participated in. Five of Olsson's relays ended with a third place finish, including the 400 medley (4:03.02), 400 IM (4:07.00), 1,000 free (10:18.85), 200 medley (1:51.11) and the 400 free (3:38.69).

    MEN'S & WOMEN'S HEAD COACH
    Wally Morton (Miami, OH, '70)
    AT CSU: as men's coach: 251-138-1 (28 years), as women's coach: 12-19-0 (2 years)

    THE MORTON FILE: Wally Morton enters his 29th season as the men's swimming and diving head coach and his third with the women's team. During his tenure with the Viking men, Morton's success has been backed up by a 251-138-1 dual meet record that includes nine Penn-Ohio Championships, a pair of MCC titles and one Horizon League Championship. In his second season at the helm of the women's program, the squad recorded the most dual wins since 2005-06, with swimmers earning podium finishes in three different events at the Horizon League Championships. Morton has led five swimmers to the NCAA Championships, including 2009 All-American Jakub Dobies. He has also coached swimmers that have reached the international stage, including Nedim Nisic, who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Two more of Morton's swimmers have also gone on to be Olympic Trials finalists.

    PREVIEWING THE WOMEN: Ten swimmers and divers return for the women this season, led by five-time individual school record holder Carys Behn. Eight newcomers will join Behn and the Vikings, including seven freshmen and one sophomore transfer. Last season six individual school records were set by two swimmers, including Behn in the 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 free and Whitney Hickey in the 100 butterfly. The squad also set records in the 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 200 medley relay and the 400 medley relay.

    The rest of the returners include senior Brittany McCann, juniors Frances Carrion, Erin Green and Diana Mruk and sophomores Rachel Arzadon, Kacey Cummings, Emily Splain and Liz Victor. Green and Carrion will return to lead the distance freestyle events, after both swimming at the 2008-09 league championships where Green swam the eighth fastest time in CSU history in the 1,000 free and Carrion made top 20 finishes in the mile and 1,000. Green will also add to the breaststroke events following a season in which she swam the second-fastest time in CSU history in the 100 breast. Arzadon will join Green in breast events, after recording top-10 times during her freshman campaign. Splain and Hickey will team up in the backstroke events after recording top-10 school times in backstroke events.

    Victor and Cummings will team up to compete in the diving events for the Vikings. Victor returns after finishing 12th and 13th in the 3 and 1-meter dives, respecetively at the league meet.

    Freshmen Joanna Olsson and Alice Sommerville will contribute immediatly to the freestyle events, along with classmate Jamie Puls and Courtney Maddock. Olsson and Sommerville will also be on the butterfly roster, while the breaststroke events will get help from newcomers Michelle Ferro, Emily Simard, Kelly Rath and Allison Pallija. Ferro will also join Splain and Hickey in the backstroke events.

    PREVIEWING THE MEN: The Vikings return 12 swimmers and divers from last year's squad including senior All-American Jakub Dobies and sophomore Mark deSwardt, who was the 2008-09 Athlete of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Swimmer of the Horizon League Championship Meet. Eight freshmen and one transfer will be joining the team this season. The squad will be working to improve on the six individual school records that were set last season in the 50, 100, 1,000 and 1,650 free, 100 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke, as well as the four relay records that were set during the 2008-09 season in the 200 and 400 free relay and the 200 and 400 medley relay.

    The remaining returners include seniors Stephen Grove and Todd Winchell, juniors Zvonimir Androic, Deni Gasparin and Michael Marsico and sophomores Matt DiMasso, Keith Everhart, Colin Haner, Travis Lombardozzi and Pieter Ritz. Grove, who is the school record holder in the 50 free, will team with Marsico and add to the freestyle sprint events, while Ritz will contribute to the mid-distance free events. Grove also holds the school record in the 100 butterfly, and will lead the fly events with help from Winchell, Lombardozzi, Everhart and Androic. Winchell and Grove traded school records all last season in the 100 fly and will once again be contenders at the league meet. Gasparin, who was the 65th fastest breaststroker in the nation last season, will return for the Vikings and help Dobies in breast events. Winchell, Androic and Hanner will join forces to lead backstroke events, after being three of the best backstrokers in the conference last season.

    DiMasso returns in the diving events, after scoring in both the 1 and 3-meter dives at the conference championships. He will be joined by Josh Gonzalez, who transferred to CSU from East Carolina University.

    Newcomers this season include freshmen Brad Bielak, Alex Cohara, Pierre De Waal, Justin Hill, James Hrivnak, Tony Pavlosky, Berry Thompson and Graham Thoresen. The freestyle events will get the most help from the newcomers with Hill, Thompson, De Waal, Thoresen, Cohara, Pavlosky and Hrivnak all adding to the roster. Thompson and Bielak will also swim butterfly events for the Vikings this season, while Thoresen and Hill will contribute to backstroke events.

    DOBIES STARTS STRONG: During the first meet of the 2009-10 season, 2009 All-American Jakub Dobies swam the fastest split of the meet in the 200 medley relay, swimming the 50 breaststroke leg in 25.82. He held his own against the relay team from the University of Michigan, which is one of the top five teams in the country.

    OLSSON BEGINS CSU CAREER: Freshman Joanna Olsson swam in her first meet as a Viking this past weekend, setting the pace for the rest of her freshman campaign. Each of the relays Olsson took part in dropped more than two seconds off the times recorded at the relays last season, with the 1,000 free relay coming in 16.19 seconds faster (10:18.85).

    FRESHMEN FRONT RUNNERS: Six out of the 10 CSU swimmers that took part in the first meet were freshmen; Brad Bielak, Graham Thoresen, Joanna Olsson, Michelle Ferro, Alice Sommerville and Jamie Puls, compared to last season when only four freshmen traveled. At least one freshmen swam in every event for the Vikings this year, while 10 relays had at least half of the participants swimming in their first meet.

    SOPHOMORE SENSATION: Mark deSwardt was part of both second place finishes this past weekend at the Dennis Stark Relays. deSwardt swam the final leg in the 200 free relay, with teammates Jakub Dobies, Todd Winchell and Brad Bielak finishing in 1:29.05. deSwardt worked with Graham Thoresen in the 1,000 free relay (9:27.09), taking more than 10 seconds off the time set by deSwardt and Marko Milenkovic last season.

    FRESHMEN FOUR: The freshmen quartet of Joanna Olsson, Michelle Ferro, Alice Sommerville and Jamie Puls finished third in the 400 medley relay (4:03.02) taking more than two seconds off last year's Dennis Stark Relay time. The Vikings were the only team to have all freshmen competing in the race.

    NEXT UP: Both the men's and women's teams will have their first home meet of the season, when they host Green Bay on Saturday (Oct. 24) at 12:00 noon in Busbey Natatorium.