UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University swimming and diving program celebrated their seniors Saturday afternoon at home against Davenport University. The Cardinal men defeated Davenport 158-135 while the women lost 168-132.
The Cardinals congratulated 10 seniors on their careers at SVSU. The 10 included were Arthur Marques, Alejandro Robles Ruis, Christian Rottier, Lisette Fenneuff, Chelsea Fenton, Erin McDowell, Adelaide Spencer, Kiersten Stoddard, and Kelsie Thomas.
Both teams competed in 16 events. The men were victorious in nine of their events while the women finished first in five.
One of the biggest competitors for the SVSU men was Almos Szedlak. He claimed victory in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle finishing with times of 1 minute, 39.74 seconds, and 4:31.29 respectively. He was also part of the four-man team finishing first in the 200-yard free relay. The other three were Robles Ruiz, Logan Fox, and Josh Rottier. Roblez Ruis, Fox, Josh Rottier, and Christian Rottier took first in the 200-yard medley relay finishing in 1:29.98. Fox had two other big races, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a 45.94-second mark and finishing .19 seconds behind first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.96. Other swim event winners for SVSU included Benjamin Wainman winning the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:53.70, Evan Miller taking home the victory in the 100-yard backstroke finishing in 54.26, and Eric Slabbert winning the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:49.03. Rory Kauffman was the final winner for the Cardinals claiming victory in the 3-meter dive with a final score of 290.20. Kauffman also placed second in the 1-meter dive with a score of 279.95.
The top performers of the meet for the Cardinal women were McDowell and Flora Szklenar. McDowell finished first in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke with times of 57.21 and 2:04.35. Szklenar was the winner of the 100-yard and 200-yard fly with marks of 56.99 and 2:03.56. The 200-yard fly time for Szklenar beat the school record by two seconds and was the 11th-best time in the country. Both McDowell and Szklenar were a part of the second-place group for the 200-yard medley relay, joined by Stoddard and Veronica Markwood. They narrowly missed first place with a time of 1:46.99, finishing .26 seconds behind the winners. Stoddard and Markwood also took second with Andrea Bustos and Ella Yantz in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Their time was 1:39.57 and missed first place by 1.68 seconds. Yantz also took second in the 50-yard freestyle finishing in 25.57 seconds. The closest second-place finish for the SVSU women was Grace Charnstrom who completed the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:06.97, which was .08 seconds behind the leader. The last event win was claimed by the divers. Spencer won the 1-meter dive with a score of 253.90.
UP NEXT
SVSU swimming and diving now get ready for the end-of-the-year competitions. The GLIAC Championships are next month from February 15-18 in Holland, Michigan at the Holland Aquatic Center.