Swimming

Breaststroker Ella Ciez Announces Commitment To Cleveland State (2023)

March 15, 2023

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Ella Ciez has announced her commitment to swim and study at Cleveland State University, beginning this upcoming fall. Ciez is wrapping up her senior year at Laurel Highlands High School, and swims year-round with the Uniontown Area YMCA.

Ciez shared her reasons for choosing Cleveland State with

“I chose CSU because of its amazing campus and what it has to offer. CSU really stood out to me from all of the other colleges with their awesome coaching staff and team atmosphere!”

Ciez swims breaststroke, IM, and sprint freestyle. Last spring she competed at the 2022 YMCA Short Course National Championship, where she recorded her highest finish in the 100 breaststroke at 32nd (1:05.87). Her other events at YMCA Nationals included the 50 free (134th), 100 free (103rd), and 200 IM (2:10.02).

Most recently, Ciez set a slew of best times at the Pennsylvania YMCA West District Championships. Highlighting her meet was a 5 second drop in the 200 breast to finish 3rd (2:29.23). She also dropped over a second in the 100 fly (58.10) and a second in the 200 IM (2:08.59).

Top SCY Times:

50 free – 24.45
100 free – 53.25
100 breast – 1:05.10
200 breast – 2:29.23
200 IM – 2:08.59

Cleveland State is a Division I mid-major program that competes in the Horizon League. They recently finished 5th out of 6 teams at the 2023 Horizon League Championships. It took a 2:28.33 to advance to finals in the 200 breast, a 2:09.64 to advance in the 200 IM, and a 1:09.47 in the 100 breaststroke.

Cleveland’s State’s top breaststrokers this season were Grace Butcher and Kellsie Krisch. Butcher led the team in the 100 breast with a 1:05.73, while Krisch was the top 200 breaststroker with a 2:22.96. Both Butcher and Krisch are juniors, meaning they will be around another year to overlap with Ciez.

Ciez will join Gretchen Chelf and Audrey Butcher in Cleveland State’s incoming class of 2027. Both A. Butcher and Chelf are Ohio natives, but Chelf focuses on free while Butcher is a butterfly specialist.

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