Good Morning,
Cleveland State: A Transformational Experience - “Transformational Experience” is not just some catchy phrase...it is a way of life for those who are a part of our CSU family. This is the philosophy and mission of the university and our athletic department. Before I get into how we have performed in the pool this past semester...I’d like to take a moment to highlight how well the team is performing in the classroom and in their daily lives.  Hannah
Culture: I could not be more proud of the family feel we have. The team is truly thriving and blossoming in front of our eyes! This team is TOUGH. This team supports one another and is truly selfless. As coaches we have put them in challenging situations in training and they have demonstrated comradery and resilience. In early November the team participated in an extensive leadership nomination and evaluation process. Team captains for the 2019-2020 season are Jack Macdonald, Sam Sawyer, DJ Arslanian, Sophia Davis, Libby Smith, and Lexie Kostelnik
 
Academic Excellence
·       Men’s Team: 3.19 Semester GPA in the Fall w/ 16 making the Dean’s List
·       Women’s Team:: 3.53 Semester GPA in the Fall w/ 20 making the Dean’s List!!
 
Chris DeSantis Positive Psychology Update: In September Chris worked with our team about storytelling, understanding our past, creating our present, and being optimistic and intentional in our hopes for the future. Chris came back for Magnus and he gave our team praise for being the most resilient team he has EVER seen. Magnus was not perfect, but everyone that experienced disappointment bounced back.
 
Chris worked with us on New Year’s Eve and navigated the team through some difficult conversations with a productive “venting and complaining” session. From that the team identified OTI’s: Opportunities to Improve. Our team unpacked a lot of societal norms and confronted a lot of issues such as respect between men and women and how to engage with conflict in a productive manner.
 
Training Notes on Swimming:
Our focus this fall: Win our Culture. Culture is something we win daily in practice, the weight room, locker room, and in life outside the 20 hours of training. We hit the ground running in August and September with a focus on conditioning, circuits, and yes some running as we built up our swimming technique and aerobic threshold. The team began to see some “classic” sets repeat and we began teaching about different energy zones such as Aerobic Threshold, Aerobic Overload, V02 Maximum training. As we shifted into October we began introducing race pace training, lactate production and lactate tolerance.
 
Our hard work paid off at Magnus...Magnus Meet was our “dress rehearsal” for conference. We hosted 10 men’s teams and 12 Women’s teams for our 8th annual Magnus Cup Invitational. Our Men won the meet with 1,509 points and our women were third with 989.5--the highest finish in the past 5 years AND the most amount of points since the inception of the meet. We had all season best times and cannot even count the number of life-time bests. We knew that if we focused on culture and how we do things performance would improve--we are outperforming where we were at this point last season.
 
New Team Tradition: The Magnus Chain Coach Pieter created the “Magnus Chain”...which is worn after a lifetime best or a chain-worthy swim or dive!! Check out our social media for pictures.
Major Shout outs to: Junior/Transfer Sule Van Der Merwe for breaking the 200 backstroke record and Freshman Emma Kerro setting the 3-meter record.
 
Our divers are hot, simple as that.

Matt Akers was on fire at Magnus and won both boards earning NCAA Zones Standards. Emma Kerro had one of the more noteworthy efforts for the CSU women with her performance in 1-meter diving placing 3rd overall with 288.05 points. Her score surpassed the NCAA Zones standard by over 20 points and was fewer than six points off the school record. Kerro's best dive in finals was a reverse 1.5 somersault pike that earned 54 points. Emma broke the 3-meter record, from 2011, in prelims with a score of 309.40. Her score surpassed the NCAA Zones standard by nearly 25 points and came as a result of four dives that scored at least 53 points.
 
On the swimming side there is no way I can do justice to the meet and sum everything up in this newsletter so I’ll do my best by highlighting event winners/top 8 swims and some of the big time drops….
 
At the end of this newsletter I went into detail on the winners/top 8 swims...but wanted to put into context visually a few individual comparisons from last season at Magnus:
“Staycation”: The team enjoyed the bright grey skies and cold weather of Cleveland while putting in our best training of the season in our beautiful Busbey Natatorium and getting after it in the weight room with our strength coach. The team hosted movie nights, poker tournaments, cooked and baked together, explored local restaurants, went to professional sporting events, explored the museums, and ate a lot of Mitchell’s Ice Cream. We had team meals every day. We really came together as a team in our training and in our culture. 
 
We ended a decade and began a decade as a team. We threw the team a New Year's Eve Ball in the VIP Lounge of Wolstein. We had dinner catered, popped fake bubbly, and sang our way into the new year with karaoke. We had practice the next morning at 6:30 am!
 
We hosted a Tuesday “Training Meet” with Miami meaning we trained through the meet. We worked the team out that morning and asked them to improve their racing and compete under fatigue.
·       Sophomore Jack Krusinski won 3 individual events
·       Freshman Nate Eberhardt won his first collegiate race
·       Freshman Emma Kerro swept the diving events
 
Travel Trip to face UIC/IUPUI in two-day dual format:
Our meets in Chicago put us to the test and I'm proud of how our women excelled consistently across the two days with heart and grit. Our men came out flat Friday but turned on the heat and came out firing on all cylinders Saturday. Friday we struggled coming off the bus. The meet was projected to be much more difficult for the women, and while they came out with losses, they battled from the very first race and won respect from both the UIC and IUPUI. The men were a little flat on Friday and we challenged them to turn it around. The men needed to win the 400 free relay to with the meet. Senior Dominic Poletta, junior Ryan Sedlak, senior DJ Arslanian and senior Jack MacDonald combined to cruise to victory in the 400 freestyle relay winning with almost 2 body lengths ahead of UIC with a time of 3:03.40.
·       Jack Krusinski earned HL swimmer of the week; his second time winning the award this season and the 6th time a Viking has earned this honor
·       10 lifetime best In-Season Times between men and women 
Looking Forward:
·      We have a big weekend ahead of us as we are getting ready to travel to Michigan to take on Michigan State Friday night before we head to Oakland Saturday for dual meet action
·      Senior recognition day is Feb. 1st home against Kenyon at 10:30 am. We would love to see you all there! Please bring canned food for our Canned Food Drive to support our food pantry on campus. It will be a fun day to recognize our seniors and what they have done for our program. Also will be our taper meet for our athletes who are not traveling with the conference squad so will be great to have a lot of energy on deck and in the stands for them
·      4 weeks out of conference! The conference meet is being hosted at Oakland this year and the team is getting excited! 
Giving Day 2020 is Wednesday Feb. 12th
As a staff we have worked relentlessly to provide a transformational experience for our student athletes. As we voyage into a new era and decade we have worked to transform the look and feel of the program.
This year, we are focusing on three main areas:
Transformational Experience gifts to the swimming and diving program for NOW. Your gift will help fund the services provided by Positive Psychology Consultant Chris DeSantis throughout the 2019-2020 season. You will also help us provide healthier and higher quality meals and refueling resources, team yoga sessions. At the beginning of the year we purchased new warmups, team bags, competition tech suits, practice suits, dual meet suits, and caps hoping that our friends, family, and supporters would help us with. We would also like to send our coaching staff to the CSCAA Coaching Convention. This is the PREMIER professional development and helps them continue to provide the absolute best coaching to the team as they strive to win the Horizon League and become nationally relevant.
Swimming & Diving Scholarships for NOW and the FUTURE. Your gift will go towards guaranteeing our ability to continue to provide for our future Vikings and increase support to our current student athletes
Heritage Project Gifts to the swimming and diving facility to help support technology upgrades for training and competition, facility enhancements and upgrades
 
Our ability to provide our student athletes with the above “stuff” and scholarships enhances their experiences NOW and will ultimately change the trajectory of their LIVES for the future.
If you are interested in setting up a matching gift, providing incentives for other gift givers, does your company do matching gifts? Can we count on you to help us transform?
Request for help from our Friends and Alumni:
In the "Team is Forever" spirit, we're looking for a a dozen volunteers to help contact friends and alumni who have dropped off our radar scope. An easy task: We'll provide the names and email content; you just need to pass along to contacts who have not opened recent newsletters. If you can spend 30 minutes helping out please reply to this email with "count on me" in the subject line.
If something in this newsletter has resonated with you please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! Did a memory pop up? Do you have a question? Do you want to help our team in some way?

Hannah Burandt
Cell Phone: 216.386.8067 
MAGNUS HIGHLIGHTS: The Lady Vikes went 2-3 in the 500 free: Lexie was 2nd with 5:00.13 and Rachel Contich was 3rd with 5:00.60. Sule was 6th with 5:01.34. Dominik Niedzialek won the 500 with a time of 4:26.66 (last year he was 4th with 4:28.95!) Alec Bowie rounded out the A final swimming into 8th place with 4:39.17. Agnes Bahr was our top Lady Vike in the 200 IM earning 5th with 2:05.47. Timmy Kubacki won the 200 IM with a blazing time of 1:47.79, which is a huge lifetime best for him and 5 whole seconds faster than at this meet last year!!!! Jack Krusinksi was second with his 1:51.23 and Josh Hodges 1:55.30 good for 5th (last year he was 29th 1:59.85!!!). Gabby Marinelli was 8th in the 50 Free with 24.11. Madi was 11th with 24.01, Lauren 13th with 24.15 and Irena 16th 24.37. This is huge for the Lady Vikes considering we scored 0 points in the 50 at Conference last season! It’s important to get second swims in a meet like Magnus!

Dominik Poletta swam to second place with a 20.40 which was faster than his swims from last year. Unfortunately, this was the only race Dom swam in….later that night he had his appendix removed. The team was supportive and Dom was in high spirits and said he should be even faster now that he has one less organ. 

Agnes was second in the 400 IM with 4:25.81, Sule was 6th with 4:28.17. The Vikes were 1,3,4,6 in the 400 IM. Timmy 3:54.49, Josh Hodges 4:06.79, Austin Harper 4:06.90, and Alec Bowie 4:09.58 The Lady Vikes were led by Shaw Barney in the 100 Fly with a 7th place finish with 56.89.Matt and DJ went 2-3 with 48.66 and 48.98, Bob was 5th with 49.95.Irena and Gaby were our top Lady Vikes in the 200 free swimming to 7th and 8th with 1:53.15 and 1:54.41.Nathen Eberhardt was 5th with 1:42.77 in the 200 free, Jack Mac and Bob were 6-7 with 1:52.83 and 1:43.06.Alana won the 100 Breaststroke with 1:03.90 and Libby was close in 2nd with 1:04.41 (out-touching the 3rd place finisher by .03!). Jack Krusinski won the 100 Breast with 55.48, Tyler was 4th with 56.01.Chuchu was 6th in the 100 Back with 57.30. on the men’s side Dominik Niedzialek won with 48.17, RJ was 51.21 .Sule broke our school record and was 2nd overall with 2:00.62 (2nd only to an NCAA-B cut swimmer from BGSU!).Agnes was 6th with 2:03.59 and Chuchu was 8th 2:04.74.The Vike’s went 1-2 in the 200 Backstroke, Dom N. won with 1:45.25 and Timmy was 2nd with 1:46.38. RJ Snuck into 8th with 1:54.06. Gabby was 7th in the 100 free 52.22. The men were 1,3,4 with DJ winning with 45.14, Jack Mac in 3rd with 45.39 and Ryan Sedlak 4th 46.43. Libby Smith was 3rd in the 300 Breaststroke with 2:20.73. Jack Krusinski won with 2:00.52 with Tyler in second place with 2:03.26. Josh Hodges was 5th with 2:07.25. Stephanie Sipple was our top 200 Butterfly finisher in 8th place with 2:07.29. The men placed 1-2-4. Matt Martin was the sole flyer under 1:50 with a swim of 1:48.40. DJ was second with 1;50.84 and Bob was 4th his 1:52.23. The final swim of the meet was an exciting, voice losing type of race. The relay was led off by DJ with a 45.43, Ryan Sedlak was next with 45.68, Bob was 46.41 and the anchor leg of Jack Mac with a huge 44.75 closed out the meet on a very loud note!
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