Nov. 3, 2008

Freshman Yi Liu is the Community Bank/ GoBonnies.com Player of the week after he led the team with two individual gold medals along with a relay bronze to help the St. Bonaventure men's swimming and diving team to a 141-100 win over Cleveland State.

Yi struck gold first in the 200-yard IM, swimming a time of 1:55.98 to earn the win at a critical point in the meet when the Bonnies were trailing. He showed even more of a flair for the dramatics in his second gold-medal win. The Toronto, Ontario native edged out Cleveland State's Mark deSwardt by a mere .17 seconds in the 200-yard butterfly to earn his second individual gold in a time of 1:54.51 and effectively helped turn the momentum to the Bonnies favor.

Holding on to a slim lead heading into the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Brown and White defended their home pool with a gold medal and bronze to seal the win. The B team of senior Chris Happel, Yi, and fellow freshman Francisco Nieves and Clayton Coleman took bronze (3:13.90), with Yi swimming the fastest split on the team.

This crucial victory came against a Cleveland State team that had beaten the Bonnies 160-82 the previous season. The win pushed the team's dual-meet record to 3-1. Yi will look to continue his early season success next weekend as the team travels to Philadelphia to take on Atlantic 10 rival LaSalle.