Oct. 19, 2013

Results

PITTSBURGH - The Oakland 200-yard freestyle relay team of Allison Bellford, Kyra Rietveld, Jill Carps and Nikki Flynn gave the Golden Grizzlies a critical victory in the final event Saturday afternoon lifting Oakland to a 131-130 win over Duquesne a three-team meet at the Towers Pool. Richmond out-scored Oakland 150-111 and Duquesne 149-112 to win the meet.

Trailing Duquesne by eight points heading into the final event, the Golden Grizzlies overtook the host Dukes in the final event thanks to the 'A' team's first-place finish and the 'B' team of Melissa VanderMeulen, Kelsey Stark, Lauren Wynalda and Bronte Stewart edging Duquesne's second squad. Flynn's 23.80 split on the anchor leg was the fastest among all swimmers in the final relay.

"Nikki Flynn has really matured a lot in the past year, and we couldn't have done it without what she did today," Oakland head swimming and diving coach Pete Hovland said. "She really tracked `em down in her anchor legs and that was the boost we needed."

Freshmen Patricia Aschan and Takara Martin were two-time individual winners for Oakland. Aschan was victorious in both long-distance freestyle races, winning both the 1,000 (10:25.89) and 500 free (5:09.26) for the second consecutive outing.

"Patricia coming in as a freshman and swimming the toughest two events for us and doing as well as she did was a big help today," Hovland said.

Martin swept the breaststroke events, taking the 100 breast in 1:06.13 and the 200 breast in 2:24.34. Hovland was not only impressed by Martin's first-place efforts, but the entire breaststroke group. VanderMeulen finished third in the 100 breast (1:07.43) and Rachel Waite added a third-place showing in the 200 breast (2:27.18).

"Our three freshmen all had big swims in the breaststroke," Hovland said.

Along with her relay win, Flynn won the 100 freestyle for the second time in as many races with a time of 52.50. She also added a second-place individual finish in the 200 free (1:55.71) and was the anchor in Oakland's 400 medley relay that took second; Flynn teamed with Rietveld, Martin and Julia Vela for a time of 3:55.39.

Oakland returns to action at home Saturday, Oct. 26 when the Golden Grizzlies host the Illinois women's swimming and diving team at the OU Aquatic Center at 1 p.m. ET.

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