Sunday, November 17, 2024

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

Spartans drop weekend meets

January 22, 2012

Despite being senior night for the MSU women’s swimming and diving team, the Spartans came away with a tough 144-98 loss to Ohio State at McCaffree Pool at IM Sports-West.

“We did very well,” said senior Kerry Sodonis, who placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:19.42. “Obviously Ohio State is a really good team — they are top three in the Big Ten, but I thought that we really held our own.”

Standout junior Jenny Rusch led the Spartans, placing first in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle with times of 23.88 and 52.59, respectively. Rusch anchored the 400-yard medley relay team of senior Samantha Hilk, Sodonis and junior Alexandra Pierce, which took second at 3:51.43.

The women’s team had back-to-back meets this weekend, traveling to Notre Dame on Saturday with the men’s team. The men lost 174-121 to the Fighting Irish, and the women lost 218-82.

Junior Jacob Jarzen led MSU with three first-place finishes. He won the 100- and 200-yard backstroke with 49.85 and 1:48.84 respective times in addition to his 1:52.72 first-place finish in the 200-yard IM.

Jarzen was joined by sophomore Nick Roberts and senior Mark Schramm in the 200-yard IM with second- and third-place finishes, respectively.

Senior diver Sarah Clay said that the team uses these meets as practice for the Big Ten championships, which is Feb. 15 in Iowa City, Iowa, for the women’s team and Feb. 22 for the men’s team.

“We are all trying to build consistency in all of our dives,” Clay said. “I’m trying to get to the point where I will be really comfortable at the Big Tens.”

Clay took first on the three-meter board and earned a personal-best score of 343.80.

The nine seniors have really bonded over the years and helped bring everyone together as a team at this meet, senior diver Ashley Borgman said.

“We all did very well,” said Borgman, who took fourth in the three-meter diving at Notre Dame. “I think that we all pulled everything together as a team.”

Head coach Matt Gianiodis hopes the team will reach its goals to get somebody to the NCAA championships and for the team to do its best at the Big Ten tournament.

“Our goals are to get somebody to the NCAA championships and do as well as we can at the Big Tens in a month,” Gianiodis said. “(We want to) make sure that everybody swims well and has good performances — that’s the biggest thing.”

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Spartans drop weekend meets” on social media.