Women's Swimming and Diving Opens Season With Exhibition Meet

Oct. 9, 2004

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's swimming and diving team fared well while opening the 2004-05 season with an exhibition meet against Illinois Saturday at the IM West Outdoor Pool. The Spartans won eight events in the meet and posted a sweep of the 400 freestyle and 400 medley relay events.

"It's great to get wins in the relays for a meet and that is the biggest thing we want to do this season," said MSU head coach Matt Gianiodis.

In the 400 freestyle relay, MSU's `A' team of sophomore Carly Zenk (Southgate), junior Courtney Ellabarger (Carmel, Ind.), senior Tammy Jones (Conyers, Ga.) and sophomore Eve Brusie (Grand Haven) took first with a time of 4:32.85.

Brusie won the 50 free with a time of 27.44 while Zenk took first-place honors in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:09.30. Ellabarger won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.42 and junior Erika Templeton (Canton, Ohio) finished third with a time of 1:20.54.

Junior Tesla Hughes (Taft, Tenn.) and freshman Amanda Wyman (Essexville) each claimed second place in two events for Michigan State. Hughes finished behind Illinois' Kristen Koepcke in the 400 free and the 800 free with times of 4:46.56 and 9:43.97, respectively. Wyman was second in the 100 free with a time of 1:04.66 and in the 200 free with a time of 2:14.92.

Jones won the 100 butterfly with a time 1:06.74 while junior Whitney Field (Ann Arbor) placed third with a time of 1:10.37. Senior Andrea Yocum (Novi) finished fifth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:39.60.

The MSU `D' team of sophomore Lindsay Bockstiegel (Cincinnati, Ohio), senior Sarah Urbanik (Bethel Park, Pa.), sophomore Amber Rodin (Grosse Pointe) and freshman Ashley Kaminski (Walled Lake) won the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:56.66.

"I was really happy because our kids understood that it was going to be an unscored event, but they were gutting it out and cheering each other on because they wanted to win," said Gianiodis.

The Spartans will begin their regular-season schedule on the road at Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 11 a.m.