ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland’s Tricia Grant scored a 344.47 in the three-meter diving competition against Wayne State Friday evening, setting a new team standard in the event to help lead the Golden Grizzlies to a 172-123 win over the Warriors at the OU Aquatic Center. The Oakland men were also victorious, getting two individual wins apiece from Grant Harding, Mario Rusnak and Amr el Sayed to beat Wayne State 171-122.
The meet featured shorter distances in the butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke, swapping the 200-yard distance with 50-yard races. The individual medley raced at 100 yards.
“Today we had the opportunity to move some people around and swim some different distances, and we saw some positive results,” Oakland head coach Pete Hovland said. “We thought the team performed very well and raced well. They’re concentrating and focusing on the little things.”
After missing the team record two weeks ago, Grant’s score of 344.47 surpassed the previous team mark of 332.25 in the three-meter dive. Grant added a win for Oakland in the one-meter dive with a score of 290.10.
In all, the Oakland women won 11 of 14 individual events, including the dives; eight swimmers gathered the nine individual swimming wins. Leading the way was Kyra Rietveld, who was victorious in the 100 back and 50 free. Also winning for the Golden Grizzlies wereNikki Flynn (1000 free, 10:43.64), Melissa VanderMeulen (50 breast, 30.44), Patricia Aschan (100 fly, 59.18), Takara Martin (100 breast, 1:06.47), Emily Ludema (500 free, 5:07.93), Julia Vela (50 fly, 26.26) and Karin Tomeckova (100 IM, 58.74).
Oakland also won the 200 medley and 200 free relays against their regional foe. In the medley, Tomeckova, VanderMeulen, Vela andAllison Bellford finished in 1:46.33; the quartet of Rietveld, Bellford, Jill Carps and Flynn claimed the 200 free relay win in 1:38.23.
For the men, the Golden Grizzlies won the first 11 events in the pool to cruise to a 171-122 victory. After leading off Oakland’s 200 medley relay team with a solid backstroke effort, Harding added individual wins in the 50 free (21.39) and 100 back (49.77). Rusnak and el Sayed, who joined Harding and Hrafn Traustason in the meet-opening medley relay win, were also two-time individual winners. Rusnak won both the 50 fly (22.82) and the 100 fly (50.50), while el Sayed took control of the 100 free (46.63) and 200 free (1:40.66).
Traustason was one of five Oakland swimmers to capture a single individual victory, winning the 100 breaststroke in 59.67. Steve Neill (1000 free, 9:55.11), Aleksander Danielewski (50 back, 24.06), Matyas Keresztes (50 breast, 27.15) and Mitch Alters (500 free,4:48.55) were also victorious for Oakland.
The Golden Grizzlies are back in action Friday-Saturday, Dec. 6-7, at the Eastern Michigan Invitational.
Press release courtesy of Oakland University.