Wayne State Defeat Calvin College, Denison

The Wayne State University men's swimming and diving team competed at home for the first time this season and defeated both Calvin College and Denison University on Saturday afternoon at the Matthaei Aquatic Center.

Wayne State upended Calvin, 173-58, but narrowly defeated Denison, which finished third at the NCAA Division III Championships a year ago, by a score of 125-113.

The Warriors won nine events Saturday, including the 400 medley relay. Sean Smith (Auburn, Mich./Bay City Western), Matthew Laschuk (Tecumseh, Ont./Academie Ste. Cecile), Jimmy Lee (Windsor, Ont./Riverside), and Cauli Bedran (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) turned in a time of 3:31.24. Smith's leadoff time of 50.79 also broke a Matthaei pool record for the 100 backstroke.

Fernando Costa (Porto, Portugal) won two events, the 1000 freestyle (9:45.08) and the 500 freestyle (4:46.18), while his second-place time of 4:10.69 in the 400 individual medley was good for an NCAA "B" national qualifier.

Smith (1:52.91) and Laschuk (1:59.50) finished one-two in the 200 butterfly, as did Smith (1:52.65) and Lee (1:54.91) in the 200 backstroke as well as Jesper Akesson (Malmo, Sweden) and Bedran in the 50 free, posting respective times of 21.06 and 21.96. Akesson also won the 100 freestyle (47.59).

In diving, Cayce Bolt (Sterling Hts., Mich./Warren Mott) led the field on both the one-meter (276.75) and three-meter (298.60) boards, earning a national cut in the latter.

Wayne State's next competition will be Dec. 5-6 at the Eastern Michigan Invitational.