Feb. 9, 2008

Complete Results

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's men's swim team wrapped up a perfect Centennial Conference (CC) dual meet slate with a 124-78 win at Gettysburg on Saturday. The win was the Diplomats sixth in conference competition this season, and tenth consecutive victory against conference foes dating back to a November 2006 loss to Swarthmore.

The Diplomats (7-4, 6-0 CC) raced out to an early lead, sweeping through the first four events. Phil Rehders and Tom Grabiak factored heavily into the early run on the scoreboard. The pair joined forces with Greg Mackinnon and Val Perfanov to set the tone with a 6.11 second win in the day's first race, the 400-yard medley relay (3:39.14).

Rehders won the 50-yard free in an F&M sweep of places one through three during that opening salvo, while Grabiak exited the pool with a three-second edge on the Bullets' (3-6, 3-3) Carey O'Donnell in the 200-yard individual medley. Grabiak clocked a 2:02.14.

J.T. Cavey and Kalin Pavlov followed Rehders to the wall in the 50 free giving the Diplomats a 16-point surge. Grabiak added a third set of first place points late in the meet with a nearly four-second win in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:14.52).

Gettysburg's Adam Taft stopped the Bullets early bleeding with a win in the fifth men's race of the day, the 200-yard butterfly. He touched in 2:05.05, just ahead of teammate Matt Bacon, who logged a 2:05.44. Matt Rush gave the hosts another nine-point effort in the next race posting a 48.57 in the 100-yard freestyle. Rehders took second at 49.56.

Matt Young got F&M back on pace with a tight win in the 200-yard backstroke. He touched the wall in 2:03.66, just .16 seconds ahead of Gettysburg's Donald Bennett. That was followed by Derek Nowak's second win of the afternoon, a convincing 15-second win in the 500-yard freestyle. He posted a 4:53.56, the second best time swam in the Centennial in the event this season. Nowak also holds the top time this year.

Nowak had won the 1,000-yard free earlier in the meet, having logged a 10:54.40.

The Diplomats are idle next weekend, and return to the pool on Friday, February 22 for the first of three days of competition at the Centennial Conference Championships, hosted by F&M. The Diplomats are defending three consecutive championships. All of the action will be aired live on the Internet over B2 Networks.