Men Blow Open Lead on Second Day

  LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's men's swim team entered Saturday with a 70.5 point lead on the rest of the field at the Centennial Conference Championships. By the time Saturday's seven finals were in the books, that lead ballooned to 179.5 points, leaving the Diplomats poised to capture their fourth Centennial Championship in as many awarded once competition resumes on Sunday.

Franklin & Marshall collected gold in all seven events competed Saturday evening, and established two new conference records. Tom Grabiak reset the standard in the 100-yard breaststroke by 1.14 seconds, clocking a 57.30 to edge out McDaniel's Chris Reed at 58.83.

Grabiak joined with Matt Jaffee, Val Perfanov, and Phil Rehders to establish a new conference benchmark in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome clocked a 1:35.56 to post a nearly two second win in the race. The old mark was 1:35.88 set by Swarthmore's entry at last year's championship.

F&M's most impressive show of depth so far in this championship came in the 100-yard backstroke, in which Diplomats collected all three medals. Jaffee earned gold in 53.06, followed by Matt Young (53.78), and Greg Mackinnon (54.03).

Saturday's other gold medals included Derek Nowak's win in the 400-yard individual medley, Rehders win in the 100-yard butterfly, and Fishler's win in the 200-yard freestyle.

The Diplomats return to the pool for the final day of competition tomorrow morning. Preliminaries get underway at 10:00 a.m., with the final round of finals set for 6:00 p.m. The entire meet is being streamed live over B2 Networks. Free real-time results are available on GoDiplomats.com.

Team Scoring
1. Franklin & Marshall 604
2. Swarthmore 424.5
3. Dickinson 344.5
4. Gettysburg 344
5. Washington 272
6. McDaniel 194
7. Ursinus 150

Saturday Medals

Peter Fishler
Gold: 200-yard freestyle, 800-yard free relay

Tom Grabiak
Gold: 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard breaststroke

Matt Jaffe
Gold: 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard backstroke

John Kelly
Gold: 800-yard free relay

Greg Mackinnon
Bronze: 100-yard backstroke

Derek Nowak
Gold: 400-yard I.M., 800-yard free relay

Val Perfanov
Gold: 200-yard medley relay
Bronze: 100-yard butterfly

Phil Rehders
Gold: 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard butterfly

Matt Young
Gold: 800-yard free relay
Silver: 100-yard backstroke

Cumulative Medal Count

Peter Fishler
Gold: 200-yard free relay, 200-yard freestyle, 800-yard free relay
Silver: 50-yard freestyle

Tom Grabiak
Gold: 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard I.M., 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard breaststroke

Matt Jaffe
Gold: 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard backstroke
Silver: 200-yard I.M.

John Kelly
Gold: 800-yard free relay

Greg Mackinnon
Gold: 400-yard medley relay
Bronze: 100-yard backstroke

Derek Nowak
Gold: 500-yard free, 400-yard I.M., 800-yard free relay

Kalin Pavlov
Gold: 200-yard free relay

Val Perfanov
Gold: 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard free relay, 200-yard medley relay
Bronze: 100-yard butterfly

Phil Rehders
Gold: 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard free relay, 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard butterfly
Bronze: 50-yard free

Matt Young
Gold: 800-yard free relay
Silver: 100-yard backstroke
Bronze: 500-yard free