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UWM Men Look To Stay Perfect Against South Dakota State And Valpo

Team opens home portion of schedule this weekend

Dec. 4, 2007

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's swimming & diving team finally gets the chance to open the home portion of its 2007-08 schedule, hosting two dual meets this weekend. The Panthers welcome South Dakota State Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Valparaiso Saturday at 1 p.m.

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SCOUTING THE MEET:
The Panthers have competed against South Dakota State in a dual meet just once, winning in November of 2005, 132-92. The Jackrabbits have competed just once since Oct. 26, placing second out of five teams at the St. John's Invitational Nov. 10. Friday's meet will be their first action in 27 days.

Milwaukee's all-time record against Valparaiso represents the best it has in the record book at 13-0, dating back to 1991. Last season, they won, 150-69, as seven different Panthers won individual events. The Crusaders are off to an 0-6 start this season, losing to Western Illinois, 145-91, on Nov. 17 in their only action since Oct. 27. The team will be swimming at UW-Green Bay on Friday before heading to Milwaukee for the league match-up Saturday afternoon.

LAST TIME IN THE POOL:
Senior Chase Gravengood and junior Robby Leibold highlighted the way as the Panthers won back-to-back team titles at the Wheaton Invitational.

Gravengood won all three of his individual events, setting school, meet and pool records in the 400 IM. He also set meet and pool records in the 200 IM and recorded the win in the 200 butterfly as well. Additionally, he swam with four relay teams that posted season-best times.

Leibold broke the oldest record in the UWM record book and did it handily. He set a new school mark in the 1650 freestyle, finishing in a time of 15:41.89. That broke the school mark set by Brent Boock in 1991 by over 10 seconds, as Boock's former standard was 15:51.68. His time was also a meet and pool record. He also won the 500 freestyle in a meet and pool-record time of 4:34.74, which was a season-best for him by almost eight seconds (4:42.26).

Sophomore Jeremy Waldhart also contributed with a first-place effort in the 200 backstroke.

AT THE MIAMI (OH) INVITATIONAL:
Sophomore P.J. Rongitsch was the top finisher for UWM at the meet. On the one-meter board, he made the finals and placed seventh overall with a point total of 217.45. That was after placing third in the preliminaries with a total of 259.60. On the three-meter board, he made the finals and placed third overall with a point total of 312.10.

LAST YEAR:
Six different swimmers and one diver accounted for seven individual wins to help the team to a 150-69 victory over Valparaiso. UWM also won both relay events to improve its all-time series record against the Crusaders to a perfect 13-0.

The Panthers took home the top two spots in four events (1000 freestyle, 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke) and finished 1-2-3 in the 200 freestyle.

David Yugo led the way in the 200, winning in 1:49.05. In the 1000, Robby Leibold and David Adams took first and second, with Leibold touching the wall in 9:45.51 and Adams in 10:07.21. In the 50 free, freshman Ed Lichinsky was the winner in 23.16. Other winners included Chase Gravengood in the 100 backstroke, Corey Kupfer in one-meter diving and Jeremy Seibel in the 500 freestyle.

STARTING IN THE TOP 10:
The first NCAA Division I mid-major collegeswimming.com poll of the season came out last week and the Panthers are starting high. They enter the poll this season at No. 9 with 166.56 points. Navy tops the first poll with 183.48 points. UWM appeared at No. 15 in the initial poll a season ago.

WHAT "SOPHOMORE SLUMP"?:
Sophomore P.J. Rongitsch continues to dominate his competition, as he earned Horizon League Diver of the Week honors for the second time this season Nov. 13. He won both boards at the same meet for the second time this season against UIC and North Dakota, scoring 271.40 on the one-meter and winning the three-meter by over 20 points (270.10). He now has five victories, four second-place finishes, and two third-place finishes this season.

FAST START ... AND SMART - PART 2:
Junior Robby Leibold is off to the best start of his UWM career and has been rewarded outside of the pool for it as well. Last month, he was named the Horizon League Scholar Athlete of the Week for the third time in his career. In early November, he one-upped that honor by earning league scholar-athlete of the month for October. In 17 races so far this season, Leibold has posted 11 victories and four second-place finishes.

UP NEXT:
Milwaukee will be off for the rest of the month, not hitting the pool again until next year. The annual training trip to Florida is scheduled for January 3-12, 2008.