PAC Swimming & Diving Championship Begins Wednesday
Washington, Pa. -- The Presidents’ Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championship opens Wednesday at the James E. Longnecker Pool. The championship is hosted by Grove City College and will run through Saturday.
The events will be broadcast live via video webcast. Links to the free video webcast, as well as for live results and for the invitational psych sheet, will be available on the PAC website at www.pacathletics.org and the Longnecker Invitational website at www.gccinvitational.com. Admission to the PAC Championship Longnecker Invitational is $6 for finals, $4 for preliminaries and $4 for heat sheets. No conference passes are accepted at PAC Championship events.
Head Coach Mike Orstein has accumulated nine team PAC Championships (8 Women's: 1992, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008; 1 Men's: 2000) during his 24-year tenure at W&J. Orstein owns a 401-161-1 record with the Presidents and 461 dual meet victories during his 28 years as a collegiate head coach.
The W&J women’s squad (11-1, 4-1 PAC) is led by a trio of seniors. Bethany Haver (Akron, Ohio/Harvey S. Firestone), a two-time NCAA All-American, set the 1-meter (430.20) and 3-meter (431.65) PAC Championship records in 2010. This winter, Haver broke the overall PAC and Grove City pool records by earning scores of 461.77 on the 1-meter board and 443.55 3-meter platform. She is a five-time conference champion and became the first W&J diver to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships last year.
Classmates C.J. Corcoran (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton) and Brittany Vogel (Butler, Pa./Butler) provide veteran leadership in the pool. Corcoran was the PAC runner-up a year ago in the 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay, while Vogel joined Corcoran on that relay and claimed the conference 200 backstroke title as a sophomore. Corcoran swam to four victories in the Presidents’ most recent meet on Feb. 4th at Wheeling Jesuit and Vogel added three victories at the meet. Vogel is a two-time PAC Swimmer of the Week this winter.
The Presidents’ men (4-6, 2-2) also features a solid trio of swimmers led by Michael Boutwell (Winchester, Va./John Handley). Boutwell is a three-time All-PAC swimmer and owns the school records in the 500 (4:39.67) and 1,000 (10:00.98) freestyle events. He won PAC Swimmer of the Week for the week of Jan. 14th after claiming three victories against Penn State-Behrend.
Andy Rish (North East, Pa./Cathedral Prep) and Keyton Kalakewich (Edwards, Colo./Charleroi) have combined to win seven relays this winter. Rish has been among the top three finishers at the conference championships eight times during his career, while Kalakewich has been one of the team’s top sprinters, as he has claimed the 50 freestyle event in all of W&J’s last three dual meets.
The championship begins with preliminary diving events on Wednesday night (7:30 pm). On both Thursday and Friday, preliminary swimming will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the consolation and championship finals beginning at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the preliminary rounds will again begin at 10 a.m., followed by the consolation and championship finals beginning at 5:30 pm.
