February 14, 2008
Grove City leads after first night
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's swimming and diving team is in first place after the first night of competition in the 18th annual Grove City College Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. The Wolverines picked up 249 team points Thursday night and own an 18-point lead over archrival Westminster (231 points).
Grove City swept both relay events Thursday night while eclipsing the NCAA Championships provisional qualifying standard in both races. The Wolverines opened Thursday's finals with a win in the 200 free relay as junior Drew Snyder (Harmony, Pa./Seneca Valley), freshman Cam Coppelli (Guys Mills, Pa./Saegertown), junior Peter Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) and junior Tim Whitbeck (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown) recorded a victorious time of 1 minute, 23.48 seconds.
Coppelli, Whitbeck, Peter Larsen and sophomore Lincoln Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) capped Thursday's session by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:28.17.
Whitbeck added a victory in the 50 free with a time of 20.37 seconds. Grove City also secured a 1-2 sweep in 3-meter diving. Senior Joe Riddell (Osny, France/Paul-Emil Victor) earned first with 376.05 points while sophomore Kyle Grubbs (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls) placed second with 371.95.
Senior Jeremy Harbaugh (South Park, Pa./South Park) finished third in the 500 in 4:49.50, exactly two seconds ahead of fourth-place freshman Nate Nielsen (Houston, Texas/Lutheran South). Freshman Matt Leonard (Lake City, Fla./Homeschooled) took fourth in the 200 individual medley (1:59.00) while Snyder placed fourth in the 50 (21.88).
Coppelli finished fifth in the 200 IM with a mark of 1:59.42.
Friday's action will begin at 10 a.m. with preliminaries. The finals will begin at 6 p.m.
Men's Team Scores
1. Grove City College
249 2. Westminster College
231
3. Washington & Jefferson
163 4. Penn State Behrend
113
5. Saint Vincent College
83 6. Penn State Altoona
57
7. Univ. of Pitt-Bradford
52 8. Bethany College
31
9. Frostburg State
26
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