Friday, February 22, 2008

Box Score

          Valparaiso continued its solid effort at the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday evening and is in sixth place at the midway point of the meet in Cleveland, Ohio.

            The Crusaders have tallied 88 points through eight events in the four-day meet while Wright State holds the lead with 295 points.  Milwaukee is second with 274 points while Cleveland State is third with 240 points.  UIC is fourth scoring 237.5 points while Green Bay is one spot ahead of Valpo with 204.5 points.

            David Sivak (Hobart, Ind./Hobart H.S.) had the highest individual place for the Brown and Gold on the day, finishing 13^th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.42 seconds in the final.  He turned in the second fastest time in school history in the preliminary heat with a time of 21.27 seconds.

            “David was in an exceptionally fast race and did really well today,” interim head coach Barbara Tyree said.

            In the 500 free, Blake Edwards (Orange, Calif./Lutheran H.S. of Orange County) just missed the consolation finals by one place, finishing with a time of 4:51.67, the sixth quickest mark in Valpo laurels.

            “Blake had a good 500 this morning, unfortunately he just missed the cut,” Tyree added.

            The 200 individual medley saw Skyler Lennan (Lee’s Summit, Mo./North H.S.) touch the wall in 2:01.55, moving into the top-10 all-time as well.

            The Crusaders concluded the day with a sixth place finish in the 400 medley relay.  Kyle Verage (Hubertus, Wis./Marquette H.S.), Andrew Geibel (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville H.S.), Ansel Hillmer (Tampa, Fla./Hillsborough H.S.), and Edwards finished in 3:38.46, a season’s best mark.

            Valpo will return to the pool on Friday for day three of the championships.  Preliminary heats begin at 9 a.m. CST with finals slated for 5 p.m. CST.