Three Spartans Earn Big Ten Swimming and Diving Honors
12/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
Dec. 14, 2010
PARK RIDGE, Ill. - Three members of the Michigan State swimming and diving team earned honors from the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday. Junior Cameron Bartlett was named the men's swimmer of the week, while senior Ivan Zalessov was tabbed the men's diver of the week and junior Sarah Clay was named the women's diver of the week.
Bartlett garners his first weekly swimming laurel from the Big Ten after earning three first-place finishes to lead the men's team to a 181-107 victory over Ball State at McCaffree Pool last Saturday afternoon. Bartlett opened the meet by swimming the second leg of the 200-yard medley relay in which the team posted a winning time of 1:33.77. The New Paltz, N.Y., native later turned in a 57.84 in the 100-yard breaststroke, which was good for first place. He completed the breaststroke sweep when he posted a time of 2:07.84 in the 200-yard breaststroke, topping the next closest swimmer by 5.09 seconds.
Zalessov captured the 1-and 3-meter titles against the Cardinals, finishing with a pool-record score of 355.87 on the 1-meter board. The Okemos, Mich., native went on to sweep the diving events with a score of 391.50, in the 3-meter event, topping the next diver by 124.87 points. The honor marks the second career weekly accolade for Zalessov, who was also the last Spartan diver to take home the honor in December 2009.
Clay earned her first conference weekly diving laurel of the season after posting a pair of top-two finishes to lead the women's team to a 167-125 victory over Ball State last weekend. The Spartan junior posted an NCAA zone qualifying score of 302.86 in the 3-meter competition beating the field by 14.26 points. She followed that performance with a 261.83 mark on the one-meter board, earning a second place finish. Clay also earned Big Ten Diver of the Week honors on Dec. 15, 2009.
The Spartan swimming and diving team returns to action at Auburn Jan. 6-7.
Players Mentioned
