March 18, 2008

Meet Schedule

LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall sophomore Tom Grabiak will represent the Diplomats at the 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championships once the meet gets underway this Thursday in Oxford, Ohio. The Haddonfield, New Jersey, native will be the first Diplomat swimmer to compete at Nationals since Derek Nowak and JJ Czaplicki earned All-America honors at the 2006 championship meet.

The 2008 Centennial Conference Championship meet's Outstanding Performer will compete in three races, one on each day of the championships. He will race the 200-yard Individual Medley on Thursday, before competing in two distances of the breaststroke over the final two days. The 100-yard breastroke will be raced on Friday, while the 200-yard version of the stroke will be competed on Saturday.

"Tom has worked very hard to put himself in position to compete for a National Championship," said Head Coach, Bob Rueppel. "His dedication to training has left him in the running for All-America honors in two events, and the sky is the limit on what he can accomplish in his career."

Grabiak posted the 17th best qualifying time in each of the two breaststroke distances. The top 16 swimmers earn All-America certificates.

In the 100-yard breaststroke he swam to his NCAA qualifier with a time of 57.30. Staten Island freshman Pavel Buyanov is the top qualifier with a time of 55.67. Only St. Olaf's Nelson Westby joins Buyanov in qualifying with a time under 56 seconds, at 55.97.

His 200-yard breaststroke qualifier was a 2:05.94. Nelson is the race's top qualifier having posted a 2:02.23. Williams' Tyler Bonewell qualified second at 2:02.76, while Buyanov holds the third best time at 2:03.04.

Grabiak is the 38th qualifier in the 200-yard Individual Medley, having logged a 1:56.35. Carleton College's Ted Maschall carried the race's top time this season, a 1:49.72, giving him .79 seconds on the rest of the field.

Behind Grabiak, the Diplomats wrapped up their fourth Centennial Conference Championship, and sixth overall back on February 24th. Grabiak won individual championships in the 200-yard I.M., and the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. He contributed legs on a pair of gold medal winning relay teams.