CLARION MEN AT 49TH PSAC SWIM CH

CLARION MEN AT 49TH PSAC SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS FEB. 22-25

WEST CHESTER STRONG FAVORITE TO DEFEND TEAM TITLE

The 49th Annual PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) Men’s Swimming Championships will be hosted from Thursday February 22nd through Sunday February 25th at Cumberland Valley High School.

Only one event, the 1000 meter freestyle, will be competed on Thursday at 6:30pm. From Friday through Sunday prelims are set each day at 10am and finals are slated to start at 6pm. The Women’s PSAC Championship will also run at the same time in an alternating event format.

Tickets for the championship will be on sale at the door.

The PSAC Men’s Championship, which started in 1959, has seen Clarion win 24 men’s titles, while West Chester has won a total of 19 men’s crowns, Shippensburg 4 and Slippery Rock one.

West Chester’s men are seeking their ninth straight PSAC team title in 2007 when seven teams meet to vie for the PSAC Championship. Clarion has finished second at the PSAC’s the last eight seasons. Clarion has won a total of 24 PSAC titles in the last 36 seasons including a 19-year title stretch from 1971-89. Clarion’s last team championship came in 1998 when the Eagles had a four-year run on the title (1995-98).

Clarion hosted last year’s men’s championship at W.S. Tippin Natatorium and West Chester won the team title with 617 points, with Clarion second at 441 and Shippensburg third with 296. Rounding out the 8 team field were IUP fourth with 255 points, Bloomsburg fifth with 196, Kutztown sixth at 147, Edinboro seventh with 103 and Slippery Rock eighth with 67 points.

West Chester hosted the 2005 PSAC’s and won the men’s competition with 712 points, while Clarion was second with 446 and IUP third with 294. Rounding out the eight team field were Shippensburg in fourth place with 220, Kutztown fifth with 158, Bloomsburg sixth with 136, Edinboro seventh at 99 and Slippery Rock eighth with 67 points.

In 2004 at IUP, West Chester won the team title with 711.5 points, Clarion was second with 476.5, Kutztown third with 235.5 and Shippensburg fourth with 205. Rounding out the eight team field were fifth place IUP with 192, Bloomsburg sixth with 141, Slippery Rock seventh with 91.5 and Edinboro eighth with 79.

The last time Clarion won the PSAC Men’s title was in 1998 when the Golden Eagles hosted the event at Tippin Natatorium. Clarion finished first with 469 points, while IUP was second with 359, Slippery Rock third with 288, Kutztown fourth at 252.5, West Chester fifth with 248.5, Shippensburg sixth with 239, Bloomsburg seventh with 85 and Edinboro eighth with 56 points.

The 2007 PSAC Men’s Championship? "West Chester is the favorite coming in," said Clarion’s 7^th year head coach Mark VanDyke. "Scoring the meet from the psych sheet shows West Chester way out in front, with Clarion and Shippensburg battling for second place. I think we are ready to swim fast, and that’s an area that we can control. We hope to have a very fast meet."

West Chester defeated the Golden Eagles 220-139 in the dual meet this year.

Clarion will have eighteen swimmers participating including in alpha order: Grey Arrigonie (Jr., Free/Back, Latrobe), Andrew Claypool (So., Free/Fly, Kittanning), Mike Cohen (Jr., Fly/Free, Pickerington, Oh.), Tom Deardorff (Jr., Back/Free, Chambersburg), Rich Eckert (Fr., Breast/IM, Versailles), Dustin Fedunok (Fr., Free, Gibsonia), Eric Hammill (Fr., Back/IM, Verona), Mike Kerr (Jr., Back/IM, Lansdale), Adley Kilgore (Sr., Free/Fly, Airville), Matt Kreider (So., Free, York), James Rankin (Sr., Free/Breast, Butler), Adam Smearman (Sr., Fly/Free, Altoona), Andrew Soisson (Fr., Free/IM, Mechanicsburg),

Josh Soylan (Jr., Free/Fly, Sharon), Ryan Thiel (Fr., Free, Ligonier), Lee Thompson (So., Breast, Jersey Shore), Jonathan Wallace (So., Breast, Westerville, Oh.), Dan Walley (Jr., Free/Fly, Sinking Spring).

According to coach VanDyke, is Clarion’s best shot to win an individual event is Adley Kilgore in the 50 freestyle. He should also challenge in the 100 free. Kilgore was 3^rd at the D-II Nationals in the 50 last year and 2^nd at PSAC’s, while he was the PSAC Champion in 2005. The 200 medley relay of Kerr, Eckert, Cohen and Kilgore are also seeded first.

Eckert could challenge in the breaststroke events, while Thiel, Fedunok, Wally, Smearman, Cohen, Rankin, Thompson and Soisson are expected to final high in their specialities.

CLARION NOTES: Clarion had a 6-5-1 dual record this season ... Each PSAC swimmer can swim a maximum of 7 events this weekend and no more than three individual events... Clarion will be at the NCAA D-II Nationals on March 14-17 in Buffalo, N.Y.. ..... 2007 marks the 11th year diving was eliminated from the PSAC Championship... Diving remains an integral part of the NCAA Championship...Since 1971, when the PSAC began to score its championships the same way the NCAA does, the closest championship races were— 2000 when West Chester edged Clarion by 7.5 points (514.5 - 507) at IUP; in 1972 when Clarion won by 9 points (383-374) over West Chester, and 1991 when Shipp edged Clarion by 15 (565-550).