Valparaiso opened the three-day Calvin Winter Invitational scoring 35 points in the first two events and sits in seventh place after Thursday evening’s competition at the Venema Aquatic Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Crusaders scored 35 points on day one, just 11 points in back of sixth place Alma and within 29 points of third place Kalamazoo in a tightly bunched leaderboard.  Grand Valley State leads the way early in the competition with 122 points.

The day opened with the mile where Kevin Fedde (Fort Collins, Colo./Heritage Christian H.S.) led the way for the Brown and Gold with a 10^th place finish.  The junior touched the wall in 17:35.61.  Steve Booth (Saint Joseph, Mich./Saint Joseph H.S.) also scored for the Crusaders in the event, placing 13^th with a time of 18:08.45.  For both swimmers the times marked a season’s best.

Valpo added a 10^th place effort in the 800 freestyle relay to close the night.  Trevor Trimpe (New Palestine, Ind./Connersville H.S.) led off with a 1:50.69 split, his best 200 time of the year, and was followed by Fedde, Fernando Aguilar (San Salvador, El Salvador/Colegio Internacional de San Salvador H.S.), and Thomas Patrick (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead H.S.).  The team posted a time of 7:29.49, another season’s best.

Valparaiso will return to the water for day two of completion on Friday morning.  Preliminary heats begin at 9 a.m. CST with finals slated for 5 p.m. CST.  Eight more events are on tap for the middle day of competition.