A pair of 1-2 finishes in the 400-yard freestyle relay proved pivotal as the Oakland University women’s swimming and diving team defeated Eastern Michigan, 151-149, while the Golden Grizzly men came up victorious against the Eagles, 184-116, Saturday at the OU Aquatics Center.

Down 11 points and needing to take the top two spots in the 400 free relay, the Oakland women (4-1) did just that, finishing within 0.06 seconds of each other to defeat the Eagles (0-5). Alyssa Vela, JulieAnne Stears, Vanessza Balogh and Alyssa Busch came in first at 3:35.82, followed by Christine Seiple, Kelli Dewey, Margo Stanfa and Johanna Gustafsson (3:35.88).

“Back and forth, back and forth, all the way to the tail end,” Oakland coach Pete Hovland said regarding the women’s meet. “Coaches were scrambling, changing the relays up so we would have two strong relays instead of one good one and one not-so-good. We knew we had to get first and second in that in order to win the meet, and you’ve got to give your hats off to the young ladies. They stepped up big time and they did what they needed to do.

“Going into that, I wouldn’t have thought of that scenario. I’m real pleased with the ladies’ effort. They did a great job.”

Though the men’s meet was already decided going into the 400 free relay, Oakland (3-2) also finished first and second in that event to complete their victory over Eastern Michigan (1-2). Marcin Unold, Alex Aceino, Zach Johnson and Matyas Keresztes finished first at 3:04.57, with Amr el Sayed, Nick Evans, Tim Montague and Jordan Moses finishing second (3:08.35).

The Grizzly men also showed dominance by going 1-2-3 in the 500 free. El Sayed captured first in that event with a time of 4:35.06, followed by Evans (4:37.97) and Montague (4:38.65). El Sayed also won the 1,000 free (9:29.14).

Balogh finished first in the 1,000 free with a time of 10:07.75. She was 0.04 seconds behind the school record, set by Danielle Ward in 2001. Balogh also finished first in the 500 free (4:57.89).

Balogh and el Sayed each had times in the 1,000 free that surpassed the league records. Balogh finished far ahead of the women’s mark of 10:17.71, set by Maggie Vaughn of Centenary in 2007. El Sayed bested the men’s record of 9:25.42, established by Montague in 2009. Balogh and el Sayed were not credited with the league records Saturday, however, because they can only be broken during The Summit League Championships, which will be held Feb. 13-19 in Indianapolis.

Chelsea Oates made history as she finished second in 3-meter diving with a score of 310.05. That is a new Oakland record as Oates broke her own previous school record of 308.26 from 2010.

After season-opening losses, both the Oakland men and women are building strong winning streaks. The women have won four straight since losing their first dual meet to Toledo, while the men won their last three after starting the season with a tri-meet loss to Michigan and Notre Dame.

The Grizzlies have a difficult task in front of them Saturday when they travel to Cleveland as they will be competing in a quad-meet against Cleveland State, Duquesne and Xavier.

“(Preparing for all three opponents) is tough to do,” Hovland said. “You try to focus on yourselves, try to put your best swimmers in their best events against three teams like that.”