AKRON, Ohio - Highlighted by the men's 12 event victories, the Youngstown State men's and women's swimming and diving programs delivered strong performances at the Akron Zips Classic on Friday and Saturday.
The men's team showed their depth by sweeping the two medley relays at the meet. Soma Albert, James Slessor, Aleksa Radenovic, and Gavin Redden were the winning Penguins on both the 200 and 400 medley relay squads. YSU clocked a 3:19.63 in their 400 medley relay victory and a 1:30.84 in the 200 medley relay.
The Penguin men also won the 200 and 400 free relays. The four Penguins on both winning freestyle relays were Rares Druga, Radenovic, Darren Laing, and Gavin Redden. Youngstown State finished the 200 free relay with a time of 1:23.05 while clocking a 3:02.18 in the 400 free relay.
Slessor and Albert led the Penguins individually with two victories apiece. Slessor swept both the 100 and 200 breast with times of 55.54 and 2:02.10, respectively. Albert swept the backstroke events, clocking a 49.97 in the 100 and a 1:48.34 in the 200.
Four other Penguins earned event victories at the Zips Classic. Gavin Webb clocked a 4:30.86 in the 500 free to win the event while also placing second in the 1650 free, swimming a time of 15:48.82. Redden won the 100 free with a time of 44.94 and also finished runner-up in the 50 free with a time of 20.96. Druga was the winner of the 50 free with a time of 20.90 just narrowly edging Redden.Â
Additionally, Radenovic added an individual victory to his four relay wins as he finished first in the 200 fly with a time of 1:49.18. Radenovic also placed second in the 200 IM and 100 fly, clocking times of 1:52.82 and 49.20, respectively. Also picking up a second-place finish for the Penguins was Dominic Bono who clocked a 1:51.72 in the 200 back.
In the diving events, Zachary Lao led the men with a second-place finish in the three-meter dive with a score of 235.40 and a third-place finish in the one-meter, scoring a 258.75.
As a team, the men finished second with 1178 points, only missing the meet victory by 25 points as Zavier scored 1203 to win the meet.
Hanna Held led the women's divers, placing second in the three-meter and third in the one-meter with scores of 264.15 and 236.70, respectively.Â
On the women's side, the swimmers earned eight top-10 finishes in their outing. Miriam Frass led the women's squad with three top-seven finishes. She placed third in the 1650 free with a time of 17:09.78. Additionally, she finished sixth in the 400 IM (4:32.92) and seventh in the 200 breast (2:23.41).
Hailey Clark picked up two top-seven finishes of her own, rounding out the top-five in the 1650 free with a time of 17:32.92 and placing seventh in the 500 free, clocking a 5:05.15.
Chiara Vetter finished ninth in the 100 breast with a time of 1:06.12 while Oliwia Kaniak was 10th in both breaststroke events, clocking a 1:06.46 in the 100 breast and a 2:25.06 in the 200 breast.
The women's team finished fourth at the meet, scoring 398 points. Akron won the Zips Classic title with 1271 points.
The Penguins will be next in action in their sole home meet of the fall semester, hosting Niagara and St. Francis (Pa.) in the Beeghly Natatorium on October 29.
