February 8, 2007

Grove City 2nd after 1st night of PAC Championships

GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's swimming and diving team is in second place after the first night of the three-day Grove City Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. Thursday night, the Wolverines accumulated 251 team points. Westminster currently leads the team standings with 256.5 points while Washington & Jefferson (161.5) owns third place.

Four Grove City entrants earned individual titles Thursday night. Senior Andrew Gilbert (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) captured the 200 individual medley, posting a victorious time of 1 minute, 57.20 seconds.

Freshman Chip Cressman (Marriottsville, Md./Homeschooled) won the 500 in a PAC-record time of 4:40.83 while junior Caleb Courage (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) won the 50 free in 20.41 seconds. In the preliminaries, Courage set a new conference and pool record in the 50 with a time of 20.22.

In 1-meter diving, junior Joe Riddell (Osny, France/Paul-Emil Victor) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a victorious score of 444.95 points.

Sophomores Tim Whitbeck (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown), Mitch Young (Greeley, Colo./Greeley West), Drew Snyder (Harmony, Pa./Seneca Valley) and Peter Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) opened Thursday night's session by winning the 200 free relay in 1:23.67.

Grove City posted 1-2 finishes in three events Thursday night. Larsen finished second in the 200 IM (1:58.46) while Whitbeck took second in the 50 with a time of 20.60 seconds. Whitbeck automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 50 preliminaries, recording a time of 20.46 seconds. Freshman diver Kyle Grubbs (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls) earned runner-up on the 1-meter board with 397.20 points.

Young took fourth in the 50 while sophomore Mark Barron (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) placed sixth in the 500 (4:59.41).

Friday's preliminary sessions will begin at 10 a.m. The finals will start at 6 p.m.

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Westminster College               256.5   2. Grove City College                  251
3. Washington & Jefferson College    161.5   4. Penn State Behrend                  120
5. Penn State - Altoona                 58   6. Bethany College                      49
7. St. Vincent College                  44   8. Frostburg State University           43
9. College Misericordia                 40  10. Univ. of Pitt-Bradford               31

Finals Results

Preliminary Results

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