CALEDONIA, Mich. -- The Saginaw Valley State University swimming and diving teams competed at the Don Kimble Invitational hosted by Davenport University over the weekend. The three-day meet saw the SVSU men and women both take second place in the team standings behind Wayne State University. The Cardinal men finished with 1045.5 points, while the women had 725 points.
Women's Highlights:
- Libby Caird won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. The senior set a school record with 11 dives in the 1-meter competition and finished with a score of 454.35 points. In the 3-meter dive, Caird scored 457.50 points.
- Tonya Guryeva set a school record in the 200-meter freestyle event. She finished second overall in the race with a time of 1:51.32. The senior also won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.69, and was third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.76.
- Flora Mia Szklenar was second in the 200-yard butterfly race with a time of 2:06.44, just missing the school record. She placed sixth in the 1650-yard freestyle race in 18:06.99.
- The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Guryeva, Szklenar, Sydney Shipps, and Emma Cornell won with a time of 1:36.32, and just missed the school record by .20 seconds.
- Guryeva, Shipps, Cornell, and Piper St. Clair took second for the Cardinals in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:30.69, just missing another school record.
Men's Highlights:
- Alejandro Robles Ruiz set four new SVSU school records over the weekend in his individual events. The junior took first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.85, third in the 100-yard backstroke in 50.24 seconds, first in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:48.69, and second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:39.82. Eric Slabbert had set the school record in the 200-yard backstroke prelims with a time of 1:49.15 before Ruiz broke it in the finals of the event. Slabbert ended up taking second in the finals of the race with a time of 1:49.43
- In the 1650-yard freestyle, Matteo Capotosti was second with a time of 16:03.01, just missing the school record. In the 400-yard individual medley, he ended up breaking his own school record after taking second place in 4:02.20.
- The team of Ruiz, Kyle Amick, Christian Rottier, and Joao Pedro Noguera finished second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:30.20, breaking the school record.
- Ruiz, Amick, Slabbert, and Zachary Rychel took third place in the 400-yard freestyle relay and broke the school record with a time of 3:02.74.
- In the 800-yard freestyle relay, Ruiz, Rychel, Capotosti, and Logan Fox broke the school record with a time of 6:46.89, finishing second.
From Head Coach Jason Lintjer:
"We had a phenomenal meet. I was excited to see how well we competed halfway through the season. It was impressive to set 10 school records and rack up eight "B" cuts. We also identified some areas of improvement. Overall this meet was a huge success and we're looking forward to the second half of the season."
Up Next:
SVSU will be off until after the holiday break. The Cardinals host Wayne State University in a dual meet at 1:00 pm on Saturday Jan. 8 from the Gerstacker Regional Aquatic Center.
