Jan. 13, 2011

Meet Preview

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Oakland University men's and women's swimming and diving teams heads east to Cleveland, Saturday, Jan. 15 to take on Cleveland State, Duquesne and Xavier. The meet is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

For the men, Oakland leads Cleveland State 5-0 and Duquesne 1-0. For the women, OU leads CSU 12-1 and DU 1-0. This will be the first meeting with Xavier for both teams.

"Every weekend is going to be a battle," said head coach Pete Hovland. "Last weekend was an emotional win over Eastern Michigan. We've enjoyed it and now are ready for the next challenge. Cleveland State has a nice facility and are one of the top teams in the Horizon League. Duquesne and Xavier swim in the Atlantic 10 which is a solid conference."

The men are coming off a 184-116 win over Eastern Michigan on Jan. 8. Freshman Amr el Sayed won the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle events (4:35.06, 9:29.14, respectively) while sophomore Alex Aceino won the 100 and 200 butterfly events (50.10, 1:54.02, respectively). It was a duel to the finish in the 200 free as sophomore Nick Evans edged freshman Grant Harding, 1:42.67 to 1:44.16.

OU picked up individual wins from sophomore Tobias Hansen in the 200 individual medley (1:52.54), Harding in the 200 backstroke (1:49.43), freshman Zach Johnson in the 100 free (47.32), freshman Matyas Keresztes in the 50 free (20.98), senior Marcin Unold in the 100 back (49.36) and junior Scott Yarbrough in the 100 breast (57.43).

The Golden Grizzlies won the 200 medley relay (1:31.32) with Unold, Yarbrough, Aceino and Harding and the 400 free relay with Unold, Aceino, Johnson and Keresztes.

For the women, Oakland took a dramatic 151-149 win over Eastern Michigan on Jan. 8. OU was down by 11 points and needed to go 1-2 in the last event, the 400 free relay, to win. The team of junior Alyssa Vela, sophomore JulieAnne Stears, freshman Vanessza Balogh and sophomore Alyssa Busch with a time of 3:35.82.

The team of sophomore Christine Seiple, senior Kelli Dewey, sophomore Margo Stanfa and junior Johanna Gustafsson placed second with a dramatic finish. They were third heading into the anchor leg. Gustafsson had a split of 52.28 to take second and with it, the win.

The double winners were Balogh in the 500 and 1000 free events (4:57.89, 10:07.75, respectively), Gustafsson in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events (1:05.32, 2:21.70, respectively) and Vela in the 50 and 100 free events (24.05, 51.78, respectively).

The Golden Grizzlies also won the 200 medley relay (1:46.72) with the team of Busch, Gustafsson, junior Nicole Salmeto and Vela.

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