ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University swimming and diving program battled against Oakland University and Hope College Friday evening. Both the men's and women's team earned wins over Hope and took losses against Oakland. The women finished with scores of 171-128 against home and 200-97 against Oakland while the men finished with scores of 234-55 against Hope and 180-113 against Oakland.
The Cardinals had 21 personal bests on the day with three Division II B cut times and a school record. Benjamin Wainman broke the 1000-yard freestyle record with a time of 9:16.43 beating his previous record he set this season at 9:19.86. Wainman's 500-yard freestyle time of 4:31.96 was also a Division II B cut time and his personal best. Alejandro Robles Ruiz had the third B cut time finishing the 200-yard freestyle in 1:38.80, just two seconds shy of his personal best he posted at the NCAA DII Championships last year.
Rounding out key swimmers for the men, Almost Szedlak placed second in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal best time of 49.94 seconds and Logan Fox took first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a personal best time of 2:02.66. Scott Hassett also had two personal bests with times of 1:43.93 in the 200-yard freestyle and 1:57.65 in the 200-yard individual medley. Rodrigo Vargas also took home two fourth place finishes with personal best times of 1:53.59 in the 200-yard butterfly and 4:43.99 in the 500-yard freestyle.
Grace Charnstrom had a big day for the women taking home two first place finishes with two personal best times. Charnstrom finished the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05.71 and the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:25.02. Samantha Fowler was the top scorer for SVSU placing first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:34.11 and taking second in both the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley with times of 5:08.80 and a personal best of 2:08.43. Flora Mia Szklenar had two second place finishes as well posting a season best 57.43 second finish in the 100-yard butterfly and a 2:05.72 finish in the 200-yard butterfly.
Cardinal swim and dive continues their road meets as they head to Davenport on Saturday, January 27 for a dual meet against the Panthers. That will be the final meet before the GLIAC Championships starting on February 9.