Oakland vs. Notre Dame

ROCHESTER, Michigan, January 17. SENIOR Nicholas Bonucchi had three first-place finishes in the 50 free (21.06), and swam on both winning relays, freshman Anders Jensen swept both backstroke events with a time of 50.45 in the 100 back and 1:50.45 in the 200 back and senior Aaron Holdsworth notched victories in both butterfly events (50.18 in the 100 and 1:52.12 in the 200), as the Oakland University men’s swimming and diving team defeated Notre Dame by a score of 161.5- 137.5 Saturday at the OU Aquatic Center.

This marks the third conference champion the Golden Grizzlies have taken down in three straight meets. Eastern Michigan University (MAC), Cleveland State University (Horizon) and Notre Dame (Big East) all won their respective conference titles in 2008.

“Obviously, anytime you can beat any program from Notre Dame, it’s a big victory,” said head Pete Hovland. “We’ve had a rivalry over the years and I think we caught them at a good moment. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and their athletes. Our kids are really starting to gel and we have an abundance of seniors that are starting to come together and I think they see they have something special going on and they’re riding that wave.”

Other first place individual finishes for the Golden Grizzlies came from freshman Ben Vavra in the 100 breast (58.71), senior Andy Kellogg tied with Bonucchi in the 50 free (21.06) and junior Eddie Toro in the 200 individual medley (1:54.09).

Oakland also swept both relay events with a time of 1:32.92 in the 200 medley relay (junior Marcin Unold, Vavra, Toro, Bonucchi) and took the 200 free relay (Kellogg, Bonucchi, senior Justin Veneklase and Unold) with a mark of 1:24.27.

Next up, Oakland will hit the road on Saturday, Jan. 24 when the Golden Grizzles pay a visit to Gambier, Ohio to take on Kenyon College for a 1 p.m. meet.

Special thanks to Oakland for contributing this report.

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