Oakland University Takes 10th Straight Summit League Title

Freshman Anders Jensen hit this second NCAA automatic qualifying standard and set league, school and pool records in the 200-yard backstroke (1:41.49) and set an NCAA 'B' cut and school, pool and league records in the 200 butterfly (1:44.19), and was thus awarded both Newcomer of the Year and Swimmer of the Year as Oakland University took the Summit League Championship title for the 10th year in a row Saturday at the OU Aquatic Center.
 
"This is a good tired. Mentally, emotionally, but I wouldn't trade it for anything," said Oakland University head coach Pete Hovland, who was named men's Coach of the Year. "I was talking to my staff in between sessions and I told them that I waited a long time for a performance like this, top to bottom in every event. For them to be able to stay focused like this for all six sessions is really a tribute to our team and our leadership and seniors, which is one of reasons why we were able to be so successful. This is a tribute to them and what they wanted to accomplish this weekend. They have really left their mark on this program."
 
The Golden Grizzlies also set NCAA "B" cuts in the 200 back with junior Agnes Solan (1:57.33, also a league record), junior Marcin Unold in the 200 back (1:44.77), senior Aaron Holdsworth in the 200 fly (1:44.77) and the men's 400 free relay team of senior Andy Kellogg, senior Justin Veneklase, senior Nicholas Bonucchi and Unold (2:55.95, also a league and pool record).
 
Oakland had other top-finishes from freshman Tim Montague in the 1650 freestyle (15:37.86), Kellogg in the 100 free (44.57) and freshman Scott Yarbrough in the 200 breast.
 
For the women, the Golden Grizzlies had top showings from senior and repeating Swimmer of the Year Sophia Gustafsson in the 1650 freestyle (16:57.33) and freshman and Newcomer of the Year Alyssa Vela set a Summit League record in the 100 free (50.35).
 
Throughout the course of the three-day meet, OU set 27 Summit League records, two NCAA "automatic qualifying standards and 15 NCAA "B" cuts.
 
In all, the men's and women's team accumulated 1,077 and 1,011 first place points, respectively, which is largest margin of victory for both teams since entering Division I competition. In second place in the men's field was Centenary with 551 points, then Eastern Illinois (466), Western Illinois (427), South Dakota State (320) and IUPUI (279). For the women, Western Illinois was the runner-up with 599 points, then South Dakota State (493.5), Centenary (475), Eastern Illinois (399) and IUPUI (240).
 
Next up are the NCAA Championships, which will take place on Thursday-Saturday, March 19-21 for the women and Thursday-Saturday, March 26-28 for the men in College Station, Texas on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Raffile Named Coach of the Year, Westerwinds Finish Second in Summit League Championships
Western Illinois head coach Sean Raffile was name The Summit League’s Women’s Coach of the Year as he guided the Westerwinds to a second-place finish at the conference championships Saturday evening.

The Westerwinds accumulated 599 points to finish behind team champions Oakland and the Leathernecks finished the championship meet in fourth place, earning 427 points, respectively.

“We were fantastic this weekend,” said Raffile. “We had so many lifetime bests and people were swimming so well, dropping their times so much from the middle of the year. It was so exciting and it was a very emotional weekend for all of us, I am so proud of our team.”

Leading the Westerwinds balanced-scoring attack was junior Laura Dinkelmann who broke the school record in the 200-yard butterfly as she won the event in a time of 2:01.92. Junior Lauren Trondle took sixth in the same event with a personal-best time of 2:07.81.

Sophomore McKinzie Jacobs went on to break her third school record in the weekend as she took second in the 1650-freestyle, shattering the previous 25 year-old school record by 27.9 seconds with a time of 17:09.10. In the same event, senior Amber Piercy finished seventh with a time of 17:51.23.

Kaley Rowe broke another school record in the 100-yard freestyle as she finished third with a time of 51.92. The time also qualifies the sophomore for the 2009 Short Course National Championships in Federal Way, Wash. In the same event, senior Amanda Smith finished fifth with a personal-best time of 52.56 (now ranks third all time in school history).

Senior Shannon Nelson also had one of the best swimming days of her career, placing third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a personal-best time of 2:23.85 (now ranks fourth all time in school history).

Sophomore Alayna Colley finished the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:08.53 for ninth place (now ranks fourth all time in school history) and freshman Alyssa Deffner finished 11th with a time of 2:10.50 (now ranks ninth all time in school history).

In the first two days of the championship meet, four of the five women’s relay school records were broken and in the third and final day, the 400-yard freestyle team’s performance was no exception. The team of Deffner, Taylor Martin, Rowe and Smith finished second in the event with a school-record time of 3:29.74, breaking the previous record by 3.95 seconds.

Leading the way for the Leathernecks in day three was freshman Braydon Rudy who took third in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 16:16.95 (now ranks 10th all time in school history). In the same event, sophomore Jeff Davis finished fourth with a time of 16:24.76.

Senior Gregory Thede swam his way into the school record books again with a time of 2:09.09 in the 200 breaststroke for a seventh-place finish (now ranks ninth all time in school history).

Senior Eric Campbell took second in the three-meter diving event behind Summit League Diver of the Year Jaron Tuttle (IUPUI) with a mark of 291.10.

In the 200 backstroke, junior Brian Demijan and sophomore Mike Regan had personal-best times of 1:57.87 and 1:58.72, taking 13th and 14th in the event.

Two other Leathernecks had personal-best times in the 100 freestyle in sophomore Phil Kurz and Brandon Wilkinson who finished 12th and 14th with times of 47.81 and 47.95.

“Their (senior swimmers and divers) leadership kept the team unified the entire season and it was so valuable to our success this season,” said Raffile. “As a coach, you can’t be any more proud than when you see a senior finish their career with a lifetime-best swim. You love to have one senior get a lifetime-best swim at the meet, but our seniors had a number of lifetime best and it made me so proud to be a part of this program.”