March 11, 2010

Results

Canton, Ohio - The Grand Valley State men's swimming and diving team made a big move Thursday night at the 2010 NCAA DII Swimming & Diving National Championships in Canton, Ohio. GVSU entered Thursday's finals session in seventh place with 46 points, but six top 10 finishes, including two second-place finishes moved GVSU into third place with 162 points. GVSU's 116-point session was a single-session, school-record and the second-place finishes were the best-ever for both a relay and an individual event. Drury leads the way with 264 points and Incarnate Word is second with 199 points. Competition will continue Friday (Mar. 12) morning with prelims.

GVSU scored an individual event record 40 points in the 100 butterfly. Sophomore Aaron Beebe (Grand Haven, Mich.) tallied a second-place finish in a school-record time of 48.32. Sophomore Raphael Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil) touched seventh (49.51) and junior Justin Pattermann (Elburn, Ill./East Kaneland) finished eighth (49.53). The Lakers' 400 medley relay team of Santos, Hans Hill (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep), Beebe and Matt Witkowski (South Lyon, Mich.) crushed the school-record when they touched second in 3:16.97.

GVSU's 200 free relay team of Pattermann, Witkowski, Santos and Jordan Schrotenboer (Holland, Mich.) finished 13th in a time 1:24.17 and Witkowski notched a 14th-place finish in the 200 free (1:41.63). The Lakers then scored 31 points on the 1-meter diving board. Senior Evan Betts (Milan, Mich.) equalled his fourth-place finish in 2009 with another fourth-place finish (480.70) in 2010. Reece Bierhalter (South Haven, Mich.) finished seventh (457.50) and Patrick VanDommelen (Dorr, Mich./Wayland) finished 13th with a score of 375.00.