February 15, 2013

Grove City extends lead

GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Grove City College women's swimming and diving team maintains the lead after two nights of competition at the James E. Longnecker Invitational/Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships. The Wolverines have accumulated 588 team points through the conclusion of Friday night's session and own an 84-point lead over second-place Westminster. Saint Vincent is third with 397 points.

Grove City won both relay events to bookend Friday's finals. Sophomore Lauren Cassano (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township), junior Kaley Hess (Reamstown, Pa./Cocalico), senior Kait Riesmeyer (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) and senior Angela Palumbo (Washington, Pa./Trinity) opened the session by winning the 200 medley relay in 1 minute, 46.13 seconds. That time surpasses the NCAA Championships' provisional qualifying standard.

The Wolverines then closed the session by winning the 800 free relay. Freshman Megan Bilko (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan), sophomore Keegan Reed (Greencastle, Pa./James Buchanan), sophomore Tori Baker (Fairfax, Va./Robinson) and senior Jenny Ryan (State College, Pa./State College) posted a victorious time of 7:43.83. That time also provisionally qualifies the quartet for the NCAA Championships.

Cassano, Hess, Palumbo, Riesmeyer and Ryan all notched individual wins. Cassano took the 100 backstroke in a provisional qualifying time of 58.36 seconds while Hess won the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.73. Palumbo prevailed in the 200 free with an NCAA "B" time of 1:52.29 and Riesmeyer won the 100 butterfly in 56.91. Riesmeyer provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet in the 100 fly.

Ryan opened the individual portion of Friday's finals with a winning effort of 4:33.74 in the 400 individual medley. She surpassed the provisional standard in that event.

Baker earned second in the 200 free (1:55.10) while Reed earned third in the 400 IM (4:41.81). Sophomore Emma Rudolf (Birchrunville, Pa./Homeschooled) finished third in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.88) and fourth in the 400 IM (4:46.32). Junior Janele Baglia (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) placed fifth in the 100 butterfly with a 59.90 clocking.

Saturday's preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. The finals start at 5:30 p.m.

Team Standings
1. Grove City College                588   2. Westminster College               504
3. Saint Vincent College             397   4. Washington & Jefferson College    258
5. Penn State Behrend                137   6. Bethany College                   125
7. Chatham University                120   8. Cabrini College                   103
9. Penn State Altoona                 84  10. Franciscan University of Steub     83
11. Univ of Pittsburgh at Bradford     46

Results

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