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Champions! Milwaukee Runs Away With League Crown
Feb. 25, 2012
Brown Deer, Wis. - Emily McClellan recorded another NCAA `A' cut time, Becky Yokosh broke another record with an NCAA `B' cut time and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming and diving team ran away with the Horizon League Championship in the final day at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center Saturday. After coming into the day up by five points, Milwaukee finished with an 84-point victory with 759.5 points. Cleveland State finished second with 675.5 points and Green Bay took third at 631. UIC was fourth at 566.5, Wright State fifth at 402.5, while Youngstown State (364), Valparaiso (137) and Butler (124) rounded out the scoring. Sophomore Emily McClellan was named Swimmer of the Meet and Athlete of the Year, and Kyle Clements was named Horizon League Coach of the Year in just his second year as head coach. This is Milwaukee's first championship since 2001 and second in school history. "I'm just so proud," Clements said. "They have worked so hard; they do everything that the (fellow champion) men's team does...they got what they deserved. For us to win here at Schroeder, in Wisconsin, it's just absolutely amazing." McClellan continued to destroy the league record book, finishing the 200 breaststroke with an NCAA `A' cut time of 2:08.94, which guarantees her a spot in the NCAA Championships. That is the second `A' cut time she has posted this meet and she is the only female Horizon League swimmer to achieve that accomplishment. Also scoring in the event for UWM were senior Sarah Wardecke (2:20.02) in fifth and sophomore Lindsey Verhulst (2:20.49) in eighth. "Individual championships are great," Clements said. "Emily McClellan's time is absolutely amazing. There are only a handful of women in the country that can do that. "But we always have those. We always have winners. It's the rest of the team; it's the girls like Sophia Schmidt, Sierra Townsend, Brittany Walsh, Chloe Lewis, all the girls in the mile...it's all those women that are able to final and add to that lead. We train hard and work hard everyday so on day three or day four, if it's close, that's when we're at our peak and that's what happened today." Sophomore Becky Yokosh also broke the league record in the 200 backstroke with an NCAA `B' cut time of 1:58.85, winning the event by over one full second. Senior Danielle Chapman took fifth in 2:02.71 and sophomore Erika Pliner was right behind in sixth at 2:03.60. Senior Heidi Niespodzany continued Milwaukee's dominating final day, winning the freestyle with a school-record time of 50.50. Freshman Anna Yontz touched the wall at 51.66 for seventh. Townsend and Schmidt also scored for Milwaukee in the consolation finals, adding valuable points. In the 200 butterfly, sophomore Diana Diel posted a season-best time of 2:04.90 to take fifth. Sophomore Hilary Woldt and junior Maggi Beck also scored for UWM. Freshman Brittany Walsh led the way in the 1650 freestyle, taking second in 17:16.15. Sophomore Chloe Lewis was fifth in 17:28.53 and junior Karmyn Van Dewettering was sixth at 17:32.92. 2012 Horizon League Women's Champions: Milwaukee
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