Hill and Dow top YSU swim efforts

Staff report

BROWN DEER, WIS.

The Youngstown State swimming and diving team produced seven top-10 finishes on Saturday at the Horizon League Championships at the Schroeder Aquatic Center.

YSU scored 364 points in the event, the most in the program’s history in 11 Horizon Championship appearances.

Junior diver Casey Hill was second in the 3-meter dive while freshman Ashley Dow placed second in the 200-yard backstroke.

Also, Dow placed second in the 200-yard backstroke with a school-record time of 1 minute, 59.54 seconds, just behind Milwaukee’s Becky Yokosh who set a meet record at 1:58.85.

Dow broke the school mark earlier on Saturday in the preliminaries before breaking it again in the finals.

Dow was named the co-Newcomer of the Year with Green Bay’s Amanda Walker. Dow became YSU’s first swimming league champion since 2004 on Friday.

Hill, who placed second in the 1-meter dive on Thursday, had a finals total of 272.20 finishing behind Cleveland State’s Kacey Cummings. Sophomore Tricia Vallinger was fifth with a 244.90 while Breanne Horrigan placed ninth with a 261.10 with the highest score in the B-Final.

Junior Samantha Roberts finished seventh with a time of 2:20.32 in the 200 breaststroke.

Seniors Nishani Cicilson and Kirstin Walker both finished with a time of 52.35 in the 100 freestyle. However Cicilson was credited with an 11th-place finish and Walker finished eighth. Walker qualified for the A final, while Cicilson competed in the B final.

Sophomore Megan Ciampa finished ninth overall in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 17:44.25.

In the 100 butterfly, Laura Paz placed 10th with a time of 2:08.16.

To conclude the championships, YSU’s 400-yard freestyle relay team finished sixth with a time of 3:30.54.