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 Guilherme Veiga won the 1000 free on Saturday. |
Feb. 24, 2007
ASHLAND, Ohio - For the second straight season and fourth in the last five, the Wayne State men's swimming and diving team won the GLIAC Championship.
The Warriors totaled 830 points, second-most in GLIAC history behind Oakland's 952 points in 1987. Indianapolis (581.5) finished second, followed by Grand Valley State (576) and host Ashland (573). Lewis (470), Gannon (314.5), and Findlay (162) rounded out the field.
With both the women's and men's teams winning the conference championship for the second straight year, Wayne State joins Oakland - which did it seven times between 1989-97 - as the only schools in GLIAC history to win both titles in consecutive years.
For the sixth straight year, head coach Sean Peters earned GLIAC Men's Coach of the Year. He passed his former coach, Oakland University's Pete Hovland, for most Coach of the Year awards in GLIAC history and marked the second year in a row he has earned both the men's and women's year-end awards.
In the first event of the night for the men, Guilherme Veiga (Vinton, Va./William Byrd) won the 1000 free in a time of 9:27.34, just shy of Nick Ingrao's GLIAC record of 9:26.69 set last year. James Ekleberry (Rochester Hills, Mich./Avondale) finished fourth (9:47.36), and David Fontecchio (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Adams) rounded out the point-scoring finishers in 16th (10:38.68).
Matt Leix (Flint, Mich./Southwestern) and Luiz Pacheco (Curitiba, Brazil) finished seventh (1:56.58) and eighth (2:02.27), respectively, in the 200 backstroke, and Greg Scully (Livonia, Mich./Churchill) came in 16th (2:15.75) in the "B" final.
Three Warriors swam in the "A" final of the 100 free, led by Tiago Oliveira (Raul Soares, Brazil) in second (46.87). Cauli Bedran (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) came in third (47.13) and Sebastian Rzepa (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley) placed seventh (47.57). In the "B" final, Alex Davidson (Napoleon, Mich./Jackson) came in 11th (47.78), Justin Shields (Chesterfield, Mich./Anchor Bay) finished 14th (47.81), and Per Bergstrom (Fagersta, Sweden) took 15th (48.25).
Christer Tour (Farsta, Sweden) made an NCAA "A" cut in the 200 breaststroke, posting a time of 2:04.49. A.J. Erard (Troy, Mich./Royal Oak Shrine) came in eighth (2:13.62).
Jared Troyer (Portage, Mich./Central) and Bruno Blanco (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) went two-three in the 200 fly, posting respective times of 1:52.81 and 1:53.91, the latter giving Blanco an NCAA "B" qualifier. Brett Salogar (Bay City, Mich./Western) swam the "B" final and placed 14th (2:04.33).
In the final event of the meet, the Wayne State 400 free relay team of Pacheco, Oliveira, Rzepa, and Bedran placed second (3:06.01).
Wayne State will have several representatives competing at the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Buffalo, N.Y., March 14-17.
