Feb. 24, 2008

Final Stats

(Mechanicsburg, Pa.): Clarion's Ryan Thiel (So. Ligonier) won the 100 yard freestyle on Sunday night and was voted by the PSAC Coaches as the Men's "Swimmer of the Meet" at the 50th Annual PSAC Men's Swimming Championships held from Feb. 21-24 at Cumberland Valley High School.

West Chester won the team competition with 919 points, with Clarion second at 631.5 and Shippensburg third with 451.5 points. Rounding out the seven team field are fourth place Kutztown with 326, Edinboro in fifth with 302, IUP in sixth place with 289 points and Bloomsburg seventh with 287.

Thiel won the 100 free with a time of 45.67. His 100 time was an NCAA Qualifying mark. He also won the 50 free on Friday night with an NCAA Qualifying time and the 200 freestyle on Saturday, giving him a sweep of the first three freestyle races.

Also in the 100 freestyle race on Sunday, Andrew Claypool (So. Kittanning) was 5th (48.24) and Andrew Helm (Fr. E. Petersburg) 7th (48.39), along with Garet Weston (Fr. Indiana) 11th (48.48), Brad Moshier (Fr. Pepper Pike, Oh.) 13th (48.54) and Mike Cohen (Sr. Pickerington, Oh.) 15th (48.83).

Rich Eckert (So. Versailles) placed second in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:08.26, with Jonathan Wallace (Jr. Westerville, Oh.) placing 9th (2:18.50). Also scoring were 10th place Kyle Anger (Fr. E. Stroudsburg) (2:18.79) and 13th James Rawl (Fr. Warren, Oh.) 2:20.00.

In the 1650 freestyle Andy Soisson (So. Mechanicsburg) was 8th with a time of 17:01.71, while in the 200 backstroke Jon Kofmehl (Fr. Johnstown) was a strong third with a time of 1:56.05. Teammate Mike Kerr (Sr. Lansdale) was 9th in the 200 because his prelim time put him in the consolation final. Kerr took the consi final with a time of 1:55.88, but had to settle for 9th place. Grey Arrigonie (Sr. Latrobe) also placed 12th (2:02.14).

The 200 butterfly saw Dan Walley (Sr. Sinking Spring) finish 16th with a time of 2:04.86.

The final event, the 400 free relay, saw the team of Dustin Fedunok (So. Gibsonia), Claypool, Helm and Thiel placed second with a time of 3:05.84.

Clarion's next action will be the NCAA Division II National Championships held in Columbia, Missouri from March 12-15.