February 9, 2006

Wolverines 2nd after first night of PAC meet

GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's swimming and diving team is in is second place after the first night of the Grove City College Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. Grove City accumulated 251 team points Thursday night and trails defending PAC champion Westminster by just five points.

Grove City's 200 free relay team of freshman Tim Whitbeck (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown), freshman Mitch Young (Greeley, Colo./Greeley West), senior Ben Haring (Kenai, Alaska/Kenai Central) and sophomore Caleb Courage (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) opened with a victory in a PAC-record time of 1 minute, 22.39 seconds.

That time time surpasses the NCAA Division III "A" qualifying standard. The time also sets a new Grove City College record as well as a new pool record.

The Wolverines then closed Thursday's action by winning the 400 medley relay in a College-record time of 3:28.89. Courage, senior Joel Boerckel (East Moline, Ill./United Township), junior Andrew Gilbert (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) and freshman Peter Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) combined for the session-closing victory. That time surpasses the NCAA Division III "B" standard.

Courage also won the 50 free in 20.62 while Haring took third in 20.98. In the preliminaries, Haring set a new conference and College record in the 50 with a time of 20.57. Whitbeck took fourth in the 50 (21.09), one spot ahead of freshman Drew Snyder (Harmony, Pa./Seneca Valley).

Gilbert finished fourth in the 200 individual medley (1:58.73) while freshman Mark Barron (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) took fifth in the 500 (4:52.42).

Thursday Preliminaries        Thursday Finals

Men's Team Scores                    
 
  1. Westminster College                 256   2. Grove City College                  251
  3. Washington & Jefferson College      179   4. St. Vincent College                  74
  5. College Misericordia                 73   6. Frostburg State University           63
  7. Bethany College                      58   8. Hood College                         53
  9. Penn State - Altoona                 36  10. Penn State Behrend                   25

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