Faith Moldan

SDSU’s swimmers’ season-best times weren’t enough to wash out the University of North Dakota in the men’s and women’s swimming and diving meet Dec. 4.

Head coach Brad Erickson was happy with the performances of many swimmers. Freshman Samantha Reilly, from Sioux Falls ,dropped 20 seconds off her best time in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Freshman Brandon Maydew, also of Sioux Falls, finished the 100-yard breast stroke beating his season-best time by over two seconds. Others finishing with season-best times were Catie Coursen, a freshman from Sterling, Ala., in the 500-yard freestyle and the women’s 200-yard medley relay team. The men’s 200-yard medley relay team finished just short of a season best.

“At this point, the times we’re hitting are on line to where we want to be,” Erickson said. “We’ve been cutting back in yardage (in practice). We did 6,000 to 7,000 this week and will cut that in half next week..”

Erickson said he thought SDSU outperformed UND in some areas, but because SDSU has no divers this semester, UND was able to get 32 points on the men’s and women’s side from the diving competition. Without these points it would have been a closer finish, he said. UND beat SDSU 165 to 114 in the women’s competition and 178 to 104 in the men’s.

SDSU finished first and second in the women’s 200-yard medley relay. The team of Palicek, Tschetter, Colborn and Youngberg finished with a time of 1:56.87 and Lillis, Iverson, Kaufman and Elenkiwich finished in 2:15.23. The men’s 200-yard medley relay team of Pick, Maydew, Nordvedt and Berg finished second with a time of 1:42.65.

Justin Manning, a freshman from Vermillion, finished second in the men’s 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:39.70. Manning also finished first in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:15.19 and second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.26.

“I had a good meet today,” Manning said. “Everyone swam well and had good strong races.”

Ty Nordtvedt, a freshman from Cottage Grove, Minn., beat out teammate Manning in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.68 for first place. Nordtvedt also placed second in the 200-yard freestyle with 1:49.40 and third in the 100-yard freestyle in 50.56.

“This is the first time I’ve been under 1:50 (in the 200-yard freestyle),” Nordtvedt said. “I tried to catch him (UND swimmer Matt Stogner).”

Freshman Heather Youngberg, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, placed first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.96 and second in the 100-yard freestyle in 56.09.

Youngberg was happy with her finish in the 100-yard backstroke finish.

“I don’t usually swim backstroke,” she said.

The men’s and women’s teams compete Dec. 10 at St. Cloud State (Minn.) at 6 p.m.

#1.885552:2022630311.jpg:SWIM MEET.jpg:Samantha Reilly swims her way to a season best time in the 1,000 yard freestyle.:Mike Carlson