Oakland captures 13th consecutive Summit League swimming championship
ROCHESTER, Mich. – Since moving to Division I in the late 1990s, Oakland University has held a stranglehold on the Summit League men’s swimming and diving title.
The dominance continued Feb. 15-18 at Oakland University.
Amr el Sayed and Vanessza Balogh were named Men’s and Women’s Swimming Championship MVPs, as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams captured their 13th consecutive Summit League Championships Saturday night at the OU Aquatic
“We are really excited for how the kids swam all weekend more so than the winning part and a lot of credit goes to them for doing a great job,” said head coach Pete Hovland. “When you get to something like this and reach the pinnacle it takes a lot of hard work and we are really excited about it.”
The Oakland women won with a final score of 1,041 points, followed by South Dakota State with 662 points and South Dakota with 544 points. The Oakland men won with a final score of 1,040 points, followed by South Dakota State with 640.5 points and South Dakota with 413.
Balogh won the Women’s Swimming Championships MVP after posting new league records in the 400-yard individual medley with an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time and the 500-yard freestyle. She also successfully defended her 1,650-free title Saturday night. Balogh was also a part of the pool record setting 400-yard medley relay and league record setting 400-free relay team that earned NCAA ‘B’ qualifying times.
El Sayed won the Men’s Swimming Championships MVP after setting a league record in the 1,650 free, winning the 500-free, falling just 0.1 seconds short of a league record, and finishing runner-up in the 200-free. He was also a part of the winning 800-free relay team that earned an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time.
Mario Rusnak earned Men’s Newcomer of the Championship after earning runner-up finishes in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly and fourth in the 200 IM.
Hovland won Women’s Coach of the Year and Co-Men’s Coach of the Year, the first time he has won both awards in the same year.
For the women, Sandra Czerska defended her 100-yard butterfly crown by setting a new league record and earning an NCAA ‘B’ cut with a time of 1:59.09 while Alyssa Vela (Clarkston) became a four-time champion in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.50. Johanna Gustafsson swpet the breaststroke events as she won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:20.14 and Alyssa Busch defended her 200-yard backstroke crown with a time 2:00.44.
Tricia Grant captured her first career Summit League title in the 3-meter diving with a score of 292.35. The relay team of Vela, Czerska, Balogh and Gustafsson set a new league record and earned an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time of 3:23.89
El Sayed captured his second title of the championships as he won the 1,650-free with a league record time of 15:25.79, good for an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time. Anders Jensen swam the eighth fastest 200-yard backstroke in the country to win the third title of his career with a 1:43.16 while Scott Yarbrough finished with a career sweep of the 200-breast winning his fourth title with a time of 1:59.77, good for an NCAA ‘B’ cut.
Ben Vavra captured his first career individual title winning the 100-free with a time of 45.05. The relay team of Grant Harding, Zach Johnson, Matyas Keresztes and Vavra earned an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time of 2:58.02.
Meet Awards
Women’s Swimmer of the Championship: Vanessza Balogh, Oakland
Women’s Newcomer of the Championship: Morgan McLain, SDSU
Women’s Diving Championship MVP: Chen Ni, IUPUI
Women’s Coach of the Year: Pete Hovland Oakland
Men’s Swimmer of the Championship: Amr el Sayed, Oakland
Men’s Newcomer of the Championship: Mario Rusnak, Oakland
Men’s Diving Championship MVP: Doug Ogilvie, WIU
Men’s Co-Coach of the Year: Pete Hovland, Oakland and Brad Erikson, SDSU
OAKLAND BREAKS RECORDS ON DAY 2 OF SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
ROCHESTER HILLS — Vanessza Balogh and Tobias Hansen both broke their own Summit League records, while the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay set a new league record as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continue to lead after the second day of action at The Summit League Championships hosted by Oakland University at the OU Aquatic Center Thursday night.
“Overall, I’m excited how we did as I thought we had a great performance and I’m proud and hope it will carry over for the next two days,” said head coach Pete Hovland. “I was a little worried after this morning’s session but this team was focused tonight as we had some great swims, some tremendous time drops and all of our groups are firing on all cylinders and joining in on the fun.”
Balogh broke her own Summit League record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:48.24 to win her second-straight 500- free league title. Alyssa Vela became a three-time league champion in the 50-free with a finals time of 23.26 and Sandra Czerska successfully defended her 200-yard individual medley crown with a time of 2:02.01.
The team of Vela, Jill Carps, Kyra Rietveld and Johanna Gustafsson set a new league record in the 200-free relay with a time of 1:34.60. Marcella Barretta missed out on capturing her first Summit League title in the one-meter board by only one point, falling to IUPUI’s Chen Ni who had a final score of 283.10.
For the men, Hansen set a new league record in the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:47.09 which was also good for an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time. Anders Jensen also finished the 200-IM with an NCAA’B’ qualifying time with a 1:48.86 and a second-place finish. Amr el Sayed captured the 500-free title with an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time of 4:22.25, just 0.10 seconds off breaking the league record. Matyas Keresztes won his first 50-free Summit League individual championship with a time of 20.42.
The 200-free relay team of Keresztes, Zach Johnson, Ben Vavra and Grant Harding became Summit League champions after earning an NCAA “B’ qualifying time finishing with a 1:20.98.
The Summit League Championships continue tomorrow with day three of action beginning with Prelims at 11 a.m. followed by Finals at 6 p.m. Senior recognition will begin prior to the start of finals.
OAKLAND DOMINATES DAY 1 OF SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
ROCHESTER HILLS — The Oakland men’s team recorded two NCAA ‘B’ qualifying times and the women won both relay events as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams jumped out to an early lead after day one of The Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships Wednesday evening in the OU Aquatic Center.
“I thought we got off to a good start tonight with a lot of energy and enthusiasm,” said head coach Pete Hovland. “We are getting close to those records we set in 2009 and that shows just how fast this team is swimming right now.”
For the men, the team of Anders Jensen, Tobias Hansen, Alex Aceino and Grant Harding won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:28.72 for an NCAA ‘B’ cut. The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Nick Evans, Matyas Keresztes, Jensen, Harding earned an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time with a time of 6:33.15.
For the women, the team of Alyssa Busch, Johanna Gustafsson, Sandra Czerska and Alyssa Vela won the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:43.11 while the team of Czerska, Vanessza Balogh, Julieanne Stears and Vela won the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 7:26.07.
“With this new format of two relays on day one it is nice to get that 800-free relay in because your team is fresh and ready to go and I think we saw that with both teams in both relays,” added Hovland.
The Summit League Championships will continue tomorrow with Prelims starting at 11 a.m. and Finals beginning at 6 p.m. in the OU Aquatic Center. Fans can follow all the action on the live results page at OUGrizzlies.com.
OU SWEEPS IUPUI
ROCHESTER HILLS — Marcella Barretta swept both diving events and Joe Rodgers won the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams won their final dual meet of the season beating IUPUI during homecoming on Saturday afternoon in the OU Aquatic Center.
“This was a very exciting weekend with homecoming and having alums come back in record numbers for the event,” said Oakland head coach Pete Hovland. “We had a lot of enthusiasm and team spirit today and you can see they are starting to ramp up for the conference meet in a few weeks as we swam really well today.”
It was senior day for the Golden Grizzlies as they had a celebrated the careers for the 14 seniors that competed in their final dual meet in the OU Aquatic Center.
“It was a great weekend to send off 14 of our athletes,” added Hovland. “This was the culmination of a lot of hard work and sacrifice by all of them and I know there is a sense of accomplishment in all of them despite it being so bittersweet.”
The OU women won with a final score of 142-96 led by Barretta winning the one-meter and three-meter diving events with scores of 268.12 and 288.38 respectively, both NCAA Zone qualifying scores. Oakland had five different individual event winners including Vanessza Balogh in the 400-IM (4:31.54), Alyssa Busch in the 200-yard backstroke (2:07.14), Emily Ludema in the 200-yard butterfly (2:10.60) and Alyssa Vela in the 100-free (53.49).
The men won with a final score of 119-86 led by Rodgers winning the 400-IM with a time of 4:04.94 and the 200-back with a time of 1:52.84. The Golden Grizzlies had eight individual events including Colby Haan in the 1,000-free (10:13.37), Zach Johnson in the 500-free (4:51.39), Ben Vavra in the 50-free (21.48) and Scott Yarbrough in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:05.15).
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