Leibold's Three Victories Pace Panthers Against Eastern Michigan
Oct. 20, 2007
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Junior Robby Leibold won three events to lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's swimming & diving team Saturday against Eastern Michigan. Leibold topped the field in the 500 freestyle, 1000 freestyle and 200 butterfly, but it was not enough as the Panthers fell to the Eagles, 151-92. "We did a lot better today," UWM head coach Dave Griffore said. "Eastern is a tough team and coming off another MAC Championship so I was glad to see us respond after a quick turnaround. You could really tell we sat on a bus for seven hours with how we swam Friday [against Wright State], so today was good." Leibold's big day saw him record times of 9:40.29 in the 1,000 free for his first win of the day, 1:55.97 in the 200 fly for his second and 4:42.69 in the 500 free to pull off the trio of first-place finishes. "He took on some pretty good competition and won all of his events," Griffore said. "It was unreal. He is putting up his best times ever for this part of the season." Other top finishers for UWM included senior Chase Gravengood, sophomores Patrick Rongitsch and Jeremy Waldhart and freshman Bill McCarty, who all recorded second-place showings at the meet. Gravengood touched the wall in a time of 1:59.32 in the 200 IM, with Waldhart giving Milwaukee two of the top three finishers with a third-place effort of 2:00.83. Waldhart's second-place finish came in the 200 back, where he finished in a time of 1:56.54.
Rongitsch followed up his big day in the diving events Friday with two more seconds Saturday. He recorded point totals of 283.57 on the one-meter (where he lost by less than two points) and 317.40 on the three-meter. The Panthers also had two of the top three in the 200 freestyle, with McCarty second (1:45.22) and senior David Yugo third (1:47.97). Today was also Griffore's first return to Ypsilanti, Mich., as a head coach after spending six years on the EMU staff as an associate coach, assistant coach and graduate assistant. The squad returns home today, but the diving team heads to Chicago, Ill., Sunday for the UIC Diving Invitational. The meet gets underway at 10 a.m. |
