Women Take Third at F&M Invite

Complete Results

LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's men finished in second place amongst the nine teams competing at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational, which wrapped up Sunday morning at McGinness Pool. The Women finished in third place in a ten-team field. Kutztown ran away with the women's title, while Rowan edged out F&M by 18 points in the men's competition.

Laura Bassford won her second race of the invitational on Sunday, taking the 200-yard butterfly in 2:13.51. She edged out St. Mary's (Md.) Rachel Hotchko who touched at 2:14.25. Jennie Payne gave F&M 10th place points in the same race, while Brittany Gray added a team point from 16th place.

Brittany McCabe placed second in the 200-yard backstroke with a 2:10.56 to start Sunday's competition. McCabe came in .76 seconds behind Brie McDowell. Of St. Mary's. Lucia Parry placed sixth with Denie Kossuth coming in 10th.

McCabe joined Payne, Maureen McCluskey, and Meghan Karanian for a third place finish in the 400-yard free relay. F&M's foursome finished the race in 3:44.84.

The Diplomat men won two of the six events swam on Sunday. Matt Jaffee and Matt Young swept the top two spots in the 200-yard backstroke. The same pair swept the top two spots in the 100-yard version of the stroke last night. Jaffee touched at 1:56.05, while Young followed him in at 1:58.52. Conor Finnegan and Jeremy Tourish also scored team points in the race.

Derek Nowak won the meet's final event, the 1,650-yard freestyle with a 16:35.38 giving him 22 seconds on the field. Dan Vogel scored 14 points with a fifth place finish.

Tom Grabiak finished in second place in the 200-yard breaststroke. He clocked a 2:14.55, a hair under four seconds behind Rowan's Kevin Baker.

Four swimmers placed in the points in the 100-yard free. Peter Fishler picked up third place points, while Val Perfanov and Phil Rehders grabbed ninth and 10th respectively. John Kelly finished 16th. Alex Raup scored eighth place points in the race for F&M. Michael Brocenos and Dan Kritzer also finished in the points.

Perfanov, Fishler, Jaffe and Rehders finished third in the 400-yard free relay with a 3:13.80. Rowan won the race in 3:12.28.

Franklin & Marshall will wrap up the 2007 portion of the 2007-2008 season next Saturday at Washington College.

Women's Team Scores
1. Kutztown - 686.5
2. Rowan - 548
3. Franklin & Marshall - 412
4. St. Mary's (Md.) - 404
5. Swarthmore - 377
6. Marymount - 309.5
7. Widener - 254
8. Elizabethtown - 131
9. McDaniel - 126
10. Juniata - 9

Men's Team Scores
1. Rowan - 680
2. Franklin & Marshall - 662
3. Kutztown - 520.5
4. Widener - 365
5. Swarthmore - 290.5
6. Marymount - 247
7. McDaniel - 203
8. St. Mary's (Md.) - 182
9. Elizabethtown - 111