February 15, 2008

Wolverines extend lead

GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's swimming and diving team extended its lead over second-place Westminster Friday night in the second day of competition at the 18th annual Grove City Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. Grove City now has 587 team points while Westminster owns 568. Grove City owned a 249-231 edge entering Friday's action.

Two Grove City swimmers earned individual victories Friday night. Junior Peter Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100 butterfly with a Grove City-record time of 50.64 seconds. That mark also sets a new PAC record.

Junior Tim Whitbeck (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown) won the 100 backstroke in 52.39 seconds, which betters the NCAA provisional standard.

Whitbeck, Larsen, freshman Cam Coppelli (Guys Mills, Pa./Saegertown) and freshman Bennett Keefer (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) opened Friday's action by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:33.75.

Grove City also earned runner-up honors in the 800 free relay as senior Jeremy Harbaugh (South Park, Pa./South Park), freshman Jared Bailey (Portsmouth, R.I./Aquidneck Island Christian), freshman Nate Nielsen (Houston, Texas/Lutheran South) and junior Drew Snyder (Harmony, Pa./Seneca Valley) combined for a time of 7:08.47. Nielsen also took second in the 200 free with a 1:44.98 clocking.

Sophomore Tucker Gregg (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) earned third in the 100 backstroke, one spot ahead of freshman Matt Leonard (Lake City, Fla./Homeschooled). Leonard recorded a time of 54.33. Coppelli took fifth in the 100 backstroke (54.69).

Keefer added a fifth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (59.56) while sophomore Richard Albertson (Berwick, Pa./Berwick) took fifth in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:23.38.

Grove City is aiming for its first Invitational/conference title since 2004. Saturday's preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. with the finals scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

Results

Men's Team Scores
  1. Grove City College                  587   2. Westminster College                 568
  3. Washington & Jefferson              332   4. Penn State Behrend                  215
  5. Saint Vincent College               175   6. Penn State Altoona                  131
  7. Univ. of Pitt-Bradford               82   8. Frostburg State                      79
                                               9. Bethany College                      61

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