Jorden Merrilees was a three-time individual winner while Amr el Sayed, Grant Harding, Takara Martin andPatricia Aschan all won twice, but it was not enough as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams lost to Michigan State in a dual meet Thursday evening at MSU's McCaffree Pool. The Golden Grizzlies men fell 154.5-143.5, while the women's team was edged 163-135.
In an evenly-matched meet where both teams swapped leads both early and late, Michigan State came up with decisive performances to capture both wins.
"We ran into Michigan State's best performance of the year; they swam very well tonight," Oakland head coach Pete Hovland said. "I thought we had some really good swims, and a lot of people swam well for us. It's a tough pool to swim fast in, but we still had some good times."
Merrilees was victorious in the 200 free (1:39.11), 200 back (1:50.07) and the 200 IM with a personal-best time of 1:51.88. Merrilees' PR, coupled with a third-place finish by Tuomas Kiviluoma (1:54.09) and a fourth-place time by Aleksander Danielewski (1:55.94) put Oakland in position to defeat the Spartans, but Michigan State's 400 free relay team edged the Golden Grizzlies' quartet by five-tenths of a second to top Oakland.
"We thought that would be a pivitoval event, and they gave us a late lead with their performance and they did their job," Hovland said of the IM race. "We just came up short on the relay."
Harding and el Sayed were also two-time winners for the men, with Harding tying for first in the 50 free (21.02) and winning the 100 free outright with a time of 45.28. el Sayed again dominated the distance free events, capturing victories in the 1000 (9:32.01) and 500 (4:36.81).
Danielewski touched first in the men's 100 back (50.91) while Mitch Alters (200 fly, 1:51.67) and Hrafn Traustason (200 breast, 2:05.00) were also winners for Oakland. Traustason added a season-best in the 100 breaststroke (57.43) to place third.
On the women's side, the Golden Grizzlies registered seven individual wins, including two apiece from Martin and Aschan.
Martin swept the breaststroke events, winning the 100 (1:04.98) and the 200 (2:21.01). But the Golden Grizzlies also had solid efforts by Rachel Waite, who was third in both events and added a season-best 1:05.84 in the 100, and Melissa VanderMeulen, who took fourth in both swims.
Aschan started her evening with a second-place finish in the 1000 free, but then came back strong with wins in the 500 free (5:02.34) and turning around quickly with a PR of 2:06.19 in the 200 IM. In the 500 free, Emily Ludema's fourth-place finish (5:10.13) and Grace Waller's fifth-place time (5:12.25) gave Oakland critical points to give them a slim lead late in the meet.
Oakland reaped valuable points in the backstroke events against Michigan State, with Karin Tomeckova taking the 100 back (57.17) while Kyra Rietveld was victorious in the 200 (2:07.83). The duo took second place to each other in the backstrokes, while Megan Hunter was third in the 200 (2:09.74) and fourth in the 100 (1:00.52).
Tricia Grant rounded out Oakland's individual wins with her victory on the 1-meter board with a score of 282.53; she also took second in the 3-meter event with a mark of 284.48.
Oakland returns home Saturday, Jan. 25 to host Horizon League foe Cleveland State along with Xavier for the final home meet of the season. Action is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the OU Aquatic Center.
