The Oakland University men’s and women’s swimming teams spent Super Bowl weekend placing high at the Michigan USA Open in the OU Aquatic Center.

Among the many successful Grizzlies, sophomore Grant Harding won the 100-meter freestyle on Saturday and the 100-meter backstroke on Sunday with a time of 57.32.

Harding also used the weekend to prepare for his Olympic trials in March. He also was named the Summit League Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week.

“I was really surprised with how I competed,” Harding said. “I didn’t think I was going to finish with the times that I did.”

The women also had a strong showing with Megan Hunter earning a second-place finish 100-back and Shelby Porter being the runner-up in the 200-breast.

“(The level of competition) was a lot higher than I expected,” Hunter said. “I didn’t realize there was going to be people making Olympic trial cuts. The amount of young people that were doing so well was surprising.”

With the Summit League Championship just a week away, the Michigan USA Open serves as a tool for finishing the final roster.

The Summit League allows each participating school to bring 18 students for each men’s and women’s team to compete in the championship, but the conference allows four additional student-athletes to come swim only for exhibition, not for points.

Head Coach Pete Hovland explains that going into the Michigan USA Open, only 16 of 22 spots on each team were already filled. Those 32 total student-athletes didn’t have to swim in the event.

“Its a fairly competitive meet,” Hovland said. “It gives a number of the men and women on our team an opportunity to swim in a championship format. If they are fortunate to make one of the top 22 spots, at least they get to end their season (right).”

The men’s and women’s team are gearing up for potentially their 13th consecutive Summit League conference championship, but Hovland tries to limit the distraction of the looming streak as much as possible.

“We don’t talk to the team much about winning 13 in a row. They know its there,” Hovland said. “We try to hammer home all season long that we have to focus on ourselves and to not to worry about last year’s team or streaks.”

Along with maintaining their status at the top of the Summit League food chain as a priority, their performance in the championship has a greater meaning on the future recognition of Oakland swimming and diving.

In December, Oakland entered the top 10 mid-majors ranking with the men climbing to the seventh spot from 14th, and the women jumping from 13th to ninth. With two months left the in 2011-12 season, a strong finish can move them even further up.

“When we go into the year, we talk about being competitive amongst the best mid-majors programs in the country,” Hovland said. “There are some pretty formidable programs that are ahead of us. We are going to have to have a really good championship meet if we want to continue to see this move up in those rankings.”

Hovland stresses that Oakland’s destiny is completely in their control.

“It comes right back to us,” Hovland said. “There’s no one that’s going to help us. It is what it is and we will be judged strictly on where we are at the end of the season. We are going have to be obviously better than we were in December to improve.”

The Grizzlies are vocal about their confidence, too.

“Everyone (on the team) is looking good and strong,” Harding said. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

The Summit League Championship begins on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and ends on Saturday, Feb. 18 in the OU Aquatic Center.

(UPDATE: 2/8/2012) Head Coach Pete Hovland has released the list of the student-athletes that will be participating in the Summit League Championship

Men:

Alex Aceino, Adam Cone, Amr el Sayed, Nick Evans, Colby Haan (EX)., Tobias Hansen, Grant Harding, Anders Jensen, Zack Johnson, Matyas Kereszatas, Mark Loegel (EX)., Tim Montague, Jordan Moses, Pat Richardson, Joe Rodgers, Mario Rusnak, Jordon Staelgraeve (EX.), Ben Utesch, Ban Vavra, Josh Wolf, Ian Wood (EX.), Scott Yarbrough.

Women:

Vanessza Balogh, Marcella Barretta, Monica Blaesser (EX.), Alyssa Busch, Jill Carps, Nichole Contesti (EX.), Sandra Czerska, Jade Evink, Lindsay Gauche, Tricia Grant, Johanna Gustafsson, Megan Hunter, Jenny Larsen, Emily Ludema, Shelby Porter (EX.), Kyra Rietveld, Nicole Salmeto, Christine Seiple, Margo Stanfa, JulieAnne Stears, Bronte’ Stewart, Alyssa Vela, Julia Vela, Grace Waller (EX.).