February 13, 2009

Grove City charges into lead

GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College women's swimming and diving team surged into first place Friday night at the 19th annual Grove City Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. The Wolverines have earned 519.5 team points through the first two days of the three-day competition. Westminster is second at 505.5 while Washington & Jefferson is third at 492.

Grove City closed Friday night's session by winning the 800 free relay in a conference- and school-record time of 7 minutes, 47.51 seconds. Freshman Jenna Richert (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley), sophomore Lauren Baur (North Wales, Pa./North Penn), freshman Kara Sisley (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) and freshman Kate Wilt (Bellefonte, Pa./Bellefonte) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with their effort.

Junior Amanda Thompson (Erie, Pa./McDowell) picked up Grove City's lone individual win during the session by winning the 400 individual medley in a school-record time of 4:36.66. Thompson provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with her time.

Thompson, sophomore Sarah Bargery (Springfield, Va./Homeschooled), Baur and sophomore Sarah Page (Colorado Springs, Colo./Pine Creek) opened Friday by taking second in the 200 medley relay. The quartet recorded a school-record and NCAA "B" time of 1:47.83.

Page took second in the 100 butterfly with an NCAA "B" time of 58.41 seconds while Bargery placed second in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.72). Bargery broke the Grove City record in that event while also provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Championships. Wilt earned runner-up in the 200 free (1:56.53).

Thompson captured third in the 100 backstroke with an NCAA "B" time of 59.00 while Baur placed third in the 100 fly (59.76). Freshman Amy Fleming (Annandale, Va./Annandale) finished third in the 400 IM with a time of 4:47.32.

Sisley took fourth in the 200 free (1:59.23) while senior Rebecca Smiddy (Miami, Fla./Homeschooled) finished fifth in the 400 IM with a time of 4:48.94.

Grove City trailed by 37 points entered Friday night's session. Saturday's competition begins at 10 a.m. with preliminaries. The finals start at 5:30 p.m.

Team Standings
1. Grove City College                519.5   2. Westminster College               505.5
3. Washington & Jefferson              492   4. Chatham University                  257
5. Saint Vincent College               160   6. Frostburg State University          117
6. Penn State Behrend                  117   8. Penn State - Altoona                 95
9. Pitt-Bradford                        61  10. Bethany College                      59

Friday Preliminaries        Friday Finals

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