Thursday, February 19, 2004

Valparaiso's men's swimming and diving team is in fifth place out of seven schools after the first of three days of competition at the Midwest Classic Championships held in Indianapolis, Ind. on Thursday.

The Crusaders posted 101 points to begin the championships, just 29 behind IUPUI and Eastern Michigan, the two schools tied for third. Eastern Illinois leads after day one with 209 points, with Western Illinois second with 183 points. Miami (Ohio) is fifth with 72 points and Vincennes rounds out the competition with 67 points.

Valpo opened the competition with a fourth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay as Travers Smith (Huntley, Ill./Huntley H.S.), Bob Pedersen (Urbana, Ill./Urbana H.S.), David Kesler (Beverly Hills, Mich./Birmingham Groves H.S.), and Bob Schmidt (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville H.S.) touched the wall in 1:27.09.

Neal Badgett (Houston, Texas/Strake Jesuit Prep) turned out to be the Crusaders lone scorer in the 500 free, finishing in 15th position with a time of 4:57.00.

The 200 individual medley proved to be a fruitful event for the Brown and Gold as all four entrants scored. Peterson led the way with a time of 1:58.83 to place third. His time was just .04 seconds slower than earlier in the day during prelims when he turned in the second fastest performance in school history. Pedersen was fifth in the event with a time of 2:00.60. Jeff Ewers (Huntertown, Ind./Carroll H.S.) placed 12th with a time of 2:06.00, while Patrick Kirby (Danville, Ill./Schlarman H.S.) was 14th, 1.89 seconds behind Kirby.

In the 50 free, Valpo again had just one scorer as Smith finished in 14th place, touching the wall in 22.14 seconds.

The Brown and Gold concluded the night with a fifth place effort in the 400 medley relay. Smith, Ewers, Pedersen, and Schmidt finished in a time of 3:36.54

Valpo will return to action on Friday for day two of the meet with preliminaries set to begin at 9 a.m. CST with finals slated for 5 p.m. CST.