Horizon League Championships: Day Four

BROWN DEER, Wisconsin, February 28. THE University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women secured their fifth-consecutive Horizon League championship on Saturday, while the University of Illinois at Chicago men held off the field to nab their first-ever team championship in swimming and diving.

The Phoenix women won with a score of 859 points, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (737), Wright State University (564) and UIC (546). Coming in fifth was Youngstown State University (300), followed by Cleveland State University (290), Valparaiso University (214), and Butler University (134).

The men’s team race was much tighter, as the Flames (703) were chased by runner-up Wright State (685), third-place Milwaukee (647), fourth-place Cleveland State (612), with Green Bay in fifth (583) and Valparaiso rounding out the field (183).

To start the final session, sophomore Danielle Wenger of Milwaukee defended her title in the mile, posting a winning time of 16:53.14. Kelly Hashoian was second (17:00.18) and Olivia Arnold of Youngstown State third (17:11.30). Krystyna Wieczerzak of Wright State, also successfully repeated as champion the 200-yard backstroke with a new Horizon League record time of 1:59.00, just ahead of Green Bay’s Danielle DeGrand (1:59.11). Christine Spading of Green Bay then sprinted to victory in the 100-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 50.84 ahead of Cleveland State’s Carys Behn (51.26).

In the 200-yard breaststroke, Milwaukee freshman Sarah Wardecke won the event in 2:17.86, but did not break her League record from the morning session (2:16.73). In the last individual event of the week, Milwaukee’s Molly Finn won her fourth-straight title in the 200-yard butterfly, setting a new League record of 2:01.37. The Phoenix women then wrapped up the meet with another League mark in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:24.64).

For the men, Cleveland State freshman Mark deSwardt made the NCAA “B” cut and broke both the 1000 and 1650-yard freestyle League records in his mile swim with times of 9:01.64 and 15:02.06, respectively. He beat runner-up Zach Van Swol of UIC by 42 seconds (15:44.07), and then went on to earn Newcomer of the Year, Swimmer of the Meet, and Athlete of the Year honors.

Wright State’s Nathan Demchuk (1:47.78) then outlasted Milwaukee’s Jeremy Waldhart (1:48.52) in the 200-yard backstroke. It was the 100-yard freestyle that proved to be the most thrilling event of the evening, as last year’s Co-Swimmers of the Meet went head-to-head. Cleveland State’s Jakub Dobies could not hold off Green Bay’s Alex Hill, as Hill won the event with a new League record and an NCAA “B” Cut time of 43.69, ahead of UIC’s Brian Anderson (44.20) and Dobies (44.53).

Cleveland State’s Deni Gasparin took his second-consecutive victory in the 200-yard breaststroke with his winning time of 2:01.09, ahead of Wright State’s Davynn Peffer (2:01.25) and UIC’s Will Ikeda (2:02.02). UIC then made a grand statement in the 200-yard butterfly, as Steve Yemm (1:46.94), Andrew Schmitt (1:47.33) and Evan Dunn (1:48.85) went 1-2-3 to put UIC ahead by 48 points going into diving and the final relay. Finally, the Flames men won the 400-yard freestyle relay (2:57.04) with a new League mark to secure their first team championship in history.

Special thanks to the Horizon League for contributing this report.

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