The Oakland Golden Grizzlies men’s and women’s swim and dive team wrapped up their regular season with prevailing wins over the Cleveland State Vikings on their senior day this past Friday at the Oakland Aquatic Center.
From the scoreboard, the women’s team edged out Cleveland State 163-137, while the men’s team took care of the Vikings 195-105. In total, the teams each participated in 32 different events.
The meet kicked off with the women’s 200 medley relay. Oakland’s women’s relay “A” team featured Grace Albrecht, Bella Gary, Jordyn Shipps and Ronja Riihinen, who finished just 0.14 seconds ahead of Cleveland State’s women’s relay “A” team for first place.
The men’s team followed up the women’s performance as best as possible. The Golden Grizzlies swept the podium in the men’s first event, setting the tone for what would be a
Despite Oakland’s great start, the Vikings showed that things wouldn’t come easy in the next event. Cleveland State’s Bella Caraballo took first in the women’s 1000 free, finishing around five seconds ahead of Oakland’s Jaime Forbes.
However, that didn’t slow the Golden Grizzlies down, as the Oakland men and women took first place in the following five events. The Golden Grizzlies were especially impressive in the women’s 200 free and the men’s 100 back, sweeping the podium in both events.
Throughout the rest of the swimming events, Oakland had complete control over Cleveland State. Despite some impressive finishes from the Vikings in the women’s events, Oakland’s swimmers consistently outperformed their opponents, securing multiple podium positions.
From the diving board, the Vikings kept things quite competitive. Ellie Chalifoux placed first in the three-meter dive for the Golden Grizzlies to get things started, finishing with a final score of 293.78, while Ellie Seiter represented the Vikings in second place with a score of 260.4.
In the men’s three-meter dive, Xander Austin and James Wolf put up impressive performances for Cleveland State. Both divers scored over 300 points, placing the pair in first and second, respectively. Liam James came in third for Oakland, scoring 228.83 points.
The women’s three-meter dive was an extremely close battle, with just 17 points separating first and fourth place. This time, Seiter got the better of the Golden Grizzlies, taking first place, while Victoria Sanders came in second place for Oakland, and Chalifoux finished fourth.
Cleveland State’s duo of Wolf and Austin again dominated, this time in the men’s one-meter dive, taking the top two podium spots. Edin DeHooghe came in third place for the Golden Grizzlies, trailing Wolf and Austin by around 14 points.
The meet concluded with the women’s and men’s 400 free relay. Like the 200 medley relay, the Oakland women’s “A” team finished in first place, beating Cleveland State’s “A” team by over three seconds, while Oakland’s “B” team came in third.
The Vikings got the better of the Golden Grizzly men in their final event of the meet, as the Vikings’ “A” team finished with a final time of 3:02.23, outpacing Oakland’s “A” team by just half of a second.
Next, the Golden Grizzlies will travel to Indianapolis to compete in the Horizon League Championships, which will start on Wednesday, Feb. 19, and end on Saturday, Feb. 22.
If both the men’s and women’s teams win the championship, it will mark the 11th consecutive year for both teams in the Horizon League. Additionally, it would be the 31st consecutive year for the women’s team and the 47th consecutive year for the men’s team winning a conference championship.