Men Third, Women Fifth at UCI Invite Sprint Meet
Irvine, Calif. -- The Cal State Northridge men and women finished third and fifth, respectively, at the UCI/Ayres Hotel & Suites Sprint Invitational Saturday afternoon in Irvine. Emre Celik claimed the 100 Back title at 53.79 and 12 other Matadors logged top-ten finishes, but in the end the Washington State women and UC Irvine men claimed first place for the meet.
The meet was the first action for most of the Matadors since mid-November, when the Matadors dove in at the Nike Cup, also hosted by UC Irvine. Celik and Jeff Hart represented Northridge at the Texas Invite last month.
Celik's time of 53.79 put him just ahead of UC Irvine's Eddie Erazo, a mid-major All-American in 2006-07. Other top-ten finishers were:
•Jeff Hart (Fourth in the 100 Free: 47.59, Fifth in the 50 Fly: 24.67, Second in the 50 Free: 21.97, Ninth in the 200 Free: 1:47.42)
•Clark Henson (Third in the 100 Breast: 1:00.01, Seventh in the 50 Breast: 57.77, Fifth in the 20 Breast: 2:16.20)
•Simone Luker (Fifth in the 50 Breast: 33.11, Fourth in the 200 Breast: 2:29.80)
•Olesya Senicheva (Tenth in the 100 Fly: 1:01.61, Seventh in the 50 Fly: 27.97)
•Hank Weinberger (Sixth in the 200 Back: 2:07.74)
•Gerald Ferencz (Seventh in the 100 Back: 2:08.68)
•Jeffrey DeMoss (Ninth in the 200 Back: 2:10.90)
•Chris Ardoin (Seventh in the 50 Fly: 29.11)
•Matt Sulkevich (Eighth in the 50 Fly: 25:54, Tenth in the 50 Free: 23.27)
•Matt Oldenhage (Ninth in the 200 Breast: 2:27.31)
•Chris Grafton (Fourth in the 100 Free: 22.23)
•Emre Bulbul (Sixth in the 50 Free: 23.09)
Northridge returns to the pool this evening for the Distance Meet, and the Relay meet will wrap up the event tomorrow.
Cal State Northridge last won the annual event in 1999, when the Matador women claimed the sprint title. Northridge won overall title at the meet in 1989 (women), 1982 (men), and 1980 (men).
