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. <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Special thanks to the Horizon League for contributing this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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