EAST LANGING, Michigan, January 23. IN an all Michigan matchup, the Michigan State Spartans swept Oakland in both the men’s and women’s meets. The men won 154.5-143.5, while the women picked up a 163-135 victory.<\/p>\n
Michigan State Press Release<\/b>
\nEAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State swimming and diving team powered to victory Thursday night as both the men and women defeated the Oakland Golden Grizzlies at McCaffree pool in IM West. The women’s team bounced back after last week’s loss to win 163 to 135, while the men’s 154.5-143.5 win was backed by outstanding 400 freestyle relay performances that earned the Spartans first and third-place points to seal the co-ed dual victory for MSU.<\/p>\n
“Well, I can tell you that we did a lot better than we did last week, so that’s part of the game I think when you get into January,” said head coach Matt Gianiodis. “We went on training trip before Christmas and since then we have been inching along a little bit. I thought maybe we could get over the hump at some point. So I am very happy with the way we swam. We had a lot of people perform really well overall. We know we have been working hard, and when you work hard good things happen.”<\/p>\n
The women’s team set the tone early against Oakland with two wins in the first events of the night. The women’s 200 medley relay team of Brooke Telander, Shelby Lacy, Sarah Love and Emily Parsons swam a 1:46.35 to earn first-place points. Junior Becca Berman then took her fifth 1,000 freestyle win of the season as she coasted to a cool time of 10:17.76. Chelsea Abbott also swam well, placing third in the event with a time of 10:29.09.<\/p>\n
Summer Strickler (1.52.71) and Hannah Pugh (1.55.75) took first and third place, respectively, in the 200 freestyle. It was Strickler’s fourth win in the event this season. Lacy placed second in the 100 breaststroke for the Spartans with a time of 1:05.15. The top-two spots were also taken by Spartan women in the 200 butterfly led by Brown (2:03.88) and Pugh (2:07.80).<\/p>\n
With her second individual win, Strickler took first place in the 100 freestyle with a time of 51.84. Elizabeth Good also took third for the Spartans, swimming a 53.84. In the 500 freestyle, Pugh (5:08.68) and Berman (5:08.78) finished second and third place, respectively. The women continued to perform well and took first, second and third place in the 100 butterfly behind the swims of Brown (57.43), Love (57.62), and Marcella Kupraszewicz (57.67). In the 200 individual medley, Brown (2:08.55) and Jessica Culter (2:10.81) finished second and third, respectively<\/p>\n
The women’s 400 freestyle relay team of Strickler, Kupraszewicz, Good and Parsons took first place with a time of 3:31.01. Taylor Folkerstma, Telander, Pugh, and Love followed as they placed third with a time of 3:36.84.<\/p>\n
Alison Menizes took first place for the MSU diving team on the 3-meter with a score of 310.88. On the 1-meter, the women took first through fourth place powered by aseason-best score of 274.72 from Menizes.<\/p>\n
On the men’s side, the 200 medley relay team of Sam Schulze, Alec Kandt, Kyle Workman and Bryan Williams took first-place points with a time of 1:28.63. They were followed by Nick McGowan, Ian Rodriguez, Jacob Moore and Eric Chisholm with a time of 1:32.97 for second place. In the 1,000 freestyle, Jon Burke came from behind to take second place and swim a season-best time of 9:38.41.<\/p>\n
Williams (1.41.40) and Falconer (1.41.90) finished in second and third place in the 200 freestyle. The Spartans continued to roll as Rodriguez (57.25) and Kandt (57.30) took the first and second in the 100 breaststroke. It was Rodriguez’s best time of the season.<\/p>\n
Continuing with the 200 butterfly, Williams (1:51.91) and Nate Weeks (1:52.15) took second and third place, respectively. In the 100 butterfly, Williams also placed first with a time of 48.92 for his seventh win in the event this season. Workman placed third in the event, swimming a time of 50.31.<\/p>\n
A tie for first was called in the 50 freestyle as Falconer swam a 21.02, followed by teammate Jacob Moore in third place with a time of 21.23. Falconer kept up his solid night with a second-place finish in the 100 freestyle as he clocked a time of 46.46, tying teammate Kyle Workman. Senior Jake Austermann took second place in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:39.52. Weeks sets a season-best time in the 200 individual medley, posting a time of 1:52.15 for second place.<\/p>\n
In the final event of the night, the 400 freestyle relay, the Spartans needed to take first to win the meet. They did just that as the team of Falconer, Moore, Workman and McGowan swam a 3:00.33 to seal first place and the men’s first win of the season. They were followed closely by Austerman, Chisholm, Schulze and Nick Marsh placed third with a time of 3:08.71, touching out the Oakland team one lane over by .29 seconds.<\/p>\n
On the boards, the MSU men’s team took first and second in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter behind the efforts of Brennan Labar and Charlie Maurer. Labar scored a 303.67 on the 1-meter and a season-best 299.18 on the 3-meter, while Maurer put up a season-high 279.52 on the 1-meter and a 282.30 on the 3-meter.<\/p>\n
Oakland Press Release<\/b>
\nEAST LANSING, Mich. – Jorden Merrilees was a three-time individual winner while Amr el Sayed, Grant Harding, Takara Martin and Patricia Aschan all won twice, but it was not enough as the Oakland men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and diving teams lost to Michigan State in a dual meet Thursday evening at MSU’s McCaffree Pool. The Golden Grizzlies men fell 154.5-143.5, while the women’s team was edged 163-135.<\/p>\n
In an evenly-matched meet where both teams swapped leads both early and late, Michigan State came up with decisive performances to capture both wins.<\/p>\n
“We ran into Michigan State’s best performance of the year; they swam very well tonight,” Oakland head coach Pete Hovland said. “I thought we had some really good swims, and a lot of people swam well for us. It’s a tough pool to swim fast in, but we still had some good times.”<\/p>\n
Merrilees was victorious in the 200 free (1:39.11), 200 back (1:50.07) and the 200 IM with a personal-best time of 1:51.88. Merrilees’ PR, coupled with a third-place finish by Tuomas Kiviluoma (1:54.09) and a fourth-place time by Aleksander Danielewski (1:55.94) put Oakland in position to defeat the Spartans, but Michigan State’s 400 free relay team edged the Golden Grizzlies’ quartet by five-tenths of a second to top Oakland.<\/p>\n
“We thought that would be a pivitoval event, and they gave us a late lead with their performance and they did their job,” Hovland said of the IM race. “We just came up short on the relay.”<\/p>\n
Harding and el Sayed were also two-time winners for the men, with Harding tying for first in the 50 free (21.02) and winning the 100 free outright with a time of 45.28. el Sayed again dominated the distance free events, capturing victories in the 1000 (9:32.01) and 500 (4:36.81).<\/p>\n
Danielewski touched first in the men’s 100 back (50.91) while Mitch Alters (200 fly, 1:51.67) and Hrafn Traustason (200 breast, 2:05.00) were also winners for Oakland. Traustason added a season-best in the 100 breaststroke (57.43) to place third.<\/p>\n
On the women’s side, the Golden Grizzlies registered seven individual wins, including two apiece from Martin and Aschan.<\/p>\n
Martin swept the breaststroke events, winning the 100 (1:04.98) and the 200 (2:21.01). But the Golden Grizzlies also had solid efforts by Rachel Waite, who was third in both events and added a season-best 1:05.84 in the 100, and Melissa VanderMeulen, who took fourth in both swims.<\/p>\n
Aschan started her evening with a second-place finish in the 1000 free, but then came back strong with wins in the 500 free (5:02.34) and turning around quickly with a PR of 2:06.19 in the 200 IM. In the 500 free, Emily Ludema’s fourth-place finish (5:10.13) and Grace Waller’s fifth-place time (5:12.25) gave Oakland critical points to give them a slim lead late in the meet.<\/p>\n
Oakland reaped valuable points in the backstroke events against Michigan State, with Karin Tomeckova taking the 100 back (57.17) while Kyra Rietveld was victorious in the 200 (2:07.83). The duo took second place to each other in the backstrokes, while Megan Hunter was third in the 200 (2:09.74) and fourth in the 100 (1:00.52).<\/p>\n
Tricia Grant rounded out Oakland’s individual wins with her victory on the 1-meter board with a score of 282.53; she also took second in the 3-meter event with a mark of 284.48.<\/p>\n
Oakland returns home Saturday, Jan. 25 to host Horizon League foe Cleveland State along with Xavier for the final home meet of the season. Action is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the OU Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n