Session 1 Results

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Senior Oliver Pickering (Millburn, N.J./Millburn) rallied to a victory in the 200 IM and the Gettysburg College men's swimming finished the opening session of its own invitational in second place in the team standings on Friday night.
 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Swarthmore	288
2	Gettysburg	238
3	Ursinus	167
4	Dickinson	144
5	Susquehanna	130
6	Elizabethtown	52
7	Messiah	42

 

Event	Winner	GC Top Finisher
200 Free Relay	Ursinus (1:24.23)	2. Gettysburg (1:24.46)
500 Free	Ben Freeman, SC (4:37.49)	2. Duncan Proxmire (4:38.52)
200 IM	Oliver Pickering, GC (1:55.37)
50 Free	Ryan Carkhuff, UC (20.48)	2. Cort Hobelmann (21.17)
400 Medley Relay	Swarthmore (3:22.87)	5. Gettysburg (3:34.70)

 
Meet Highlights

• Pickering turned in Gettysburg's lone victory in the 200 IM, but the senior had to rally over the final 75 yards. Swarthmore's Horace Shew and Jeremy Rockaway were controlling the race through the butterfly and backstroke with Pickering sitting seventh in his heat at the start of the breaststroke. The Gettysburg senior nearly caught the field after 50 yards of the stroke and pulled ahead in the final freestyle dash with a split time of 27.61. Pickering touched the wall just ahead of Shew in 1:55.37. Less than a second separated the top four finishers. Sophomore Charlie Cross (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) and freshman Luca Tolino (New Market, Md./Oakdale) placed fifth (1:57.05) and eighth (1:57.47), respectively.
• The Bullets opened the meet with a runner-up showing in the 200 free relay. Freshman Cort Hobelmann (Nashville, Tenn./Owensboro Catholic), sophomore Hunter Sundlun (Richmond, Va./Saint Christopher's School), and junior Zac Evans (Egg Harbor Township, N.J./Egg Harbor Township) gave junior Nick Cox (Purcellville, Va./Ponte Vedra) a slight lead heading into the final 50, but Ursinus' 50-yard free record holder Ryan Carkhuff blazed through the water to edge out Cox for the win. Urisnus finished in 1:24.23, while Gettysburg finished in 1:24.46.
• Gettysburg featured four of the top seven swimmers in the 500 free. Sophomore Luke McKenna (Collegeville, Pa./Spring-Ford Area) led the way for a significant portion of the race and senior Duncan Proxmire (McLean, Va./Langley) was steadily gaining ground in the final heat. However, both Bullets were passed by Swarthmore's Ben Freeman who posted final 50 splits of 27.25 and 27.05 to claim the victory. Freeman finished in 4:37.49 with Proxmire taking second at 4:38.52. McKenna recorded a personal collegiate best time of 4:40.55, which maintained his spot in seventh in program history. Freshman Joe Curry (Phillipsburg, N.J./Phillipsburg) and sophomore Jack Murphy (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) placed sixth (4:49.51) and seventh (4:51.77), respectively.
• Hobelmann and Sundlun squared off with Carkhuff in the 50 free, but the Ursinus senior rocketed through the water with an NCAA B cut time of 20.48. Hobelmann notched a personal best 21.17 for runner-up, while Sundlun finished third at 21.30. Evans placed eighth with a time of 21.86.

Next Up
Action resumes in the Bullets Pool with the second session at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The third and final session of the Gettysburg Invitational will start at 5 p.m.