Grove City College Men's Swimming and Diving

GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's swimming and diving team captured the team title at the James Longnecker Invitational Saturday night in the Grove City College Pool. The Wolverines amassed 1,601 team points over the two-day event in winning the team title. Washington & Jefferson took second with 1,032 points.

Grove City swimmers earned six individual victories Saturday. Senior Caleb Courage (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) won both the 100 and 200 freestyle. He won the 100 free in 45.62 seconds, then touched first in the 200 with a time of 1:43.72.

Senior Peter Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) won the 100 fly (52.31) while junior Lincoln Larsen (Federal Way, Wash./Tacoma Baptist) placed first in the 200 breaststroke (2:11.93). Sophomore Cam Coppelli (Guys Mills, Pa./Saegertown) captured first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 53.75 seconds.

Freshman Ben Bowser (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls) won the 400 individual medley in 4:17.05.

Grove City also won all three relays held Saturday. Coppelli, both Larsens and senior Tim Whitbeck (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown) opened Saturday by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:34.55. Courage, freshman Kirk Gagliardo (Wadsworth, Ill./Warren Township), sophomore Nate Nielsen (Houston, Texas/Lutheran South) and freshman Nick Hamilton (Crescent, Pa./Moon) won the 800 free relay in 6:57.86.

Gagliardo, Peter Larsen, Whitbeck and Courage capped the meet by winning the 400 free relay in 3:05.57.

Gagliardo also took second in the 200 free (1:44.74) while sophomore Bennett Keefer (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.25. Coppelli claimed second in the 200 back (1:56.83) while Whitbeck finished second in the 100 freestyle (46.90). Freshman Josh Kim (Frederick, Md./New Life Christian) earned runner-up in the 1650 (17:12.68) while sophomore Chris Marasco (Washington, Pa./Washington) took second in the 200 butterfly (1:59.72).

Junior Kyle Grubbs (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls) took second in 3-meter diving with 187.50 points.

Peter Larsen claimed third in the 100 free (47.20) while Keefer added a third in the 200 breaststroke (2:15.46). Marasco finished third in the 100 butterfly (54.11) while Nielsen's time of 1:45.64 in the 200 free merited third. Whitbeck touched third in the 100 back (54.62) and sophomore Chip Cressman (Marriottsville, Md./Homeschooled) earned third in the 1650 (17:21.90). Gagliardo garnered third in the 200 fly with a 2:01.33 clocking and classmate Clay Beckner (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg) finished third in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.86).

Freshman diver Joe Rzempoluch (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) took third on the 3-meter board with 175.30 points.

Grove City will close 2008 Wednesday night with a Presidents' Athletic Conference dual meet at Bethany at 6 p.m.

Team Scores
1. Grove City College                 1601   2. Washington & Jefferson             1032
3. Misericordia University             407   4. Hiram College                       338
5. Frostburg State University          177   6. Salem International University       31
7. University of Findlay                29