Springfield, Mass. -- December 8, 2007 -- The Springfield College men's swimming & diving team lost a dual meet at Middlebury College this afternoon, 170-129, in Middlebury, Vermont.

The Pride did have several good moments, a number of which were provided by senior Roy Burch (Warwick, Bermuda). Burch wound up winning two events as an individual. He won both the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.55 seconds, and the 100-yard freestyle at 47.72 seconds. Burch also anchored the winning 400-yard freestyle relay, which finished with a time of 3:13.01. Others on that relay included sophomore Matt Manoni (Brookfield, Conn.), freshman Andrew Blakesley (West Springfield, Mass.), and junior Greg Pearsall (Litchfield, Conn.).

Blakesley also came up a winner in the 1650 free, eclipsing Middlebury's Ryan Marklewitz by two one-hundredths of a second with a time of 16:44.65.

The Pride divers had a fine day, finishing 1-2-3-4 in both the 1-meter and 3-meters. In the 1-meter, it was sophomore Matt Fitzgerald (Pelham, N.H.) taking first (261.45 points). He was followed by freshman Brian Sobol (Stratford, Conn.) (253.80), senior Ben Casavant (Acton, Mass.) (242.48), and sophomore Michael Osborne (Middletown, Conn.) (232.80). In the 3-meter, it was Casavant finishing first with a score of 248.18, followed by Osborne (209.63), Fitzgerald (191.33), and Sobol (174.36).

Today's competition concludes the schedule for the semester. Up next, Springfield will host Union and Hartwick on Saturday, January 12 at 1:00 pm in the Art Linkletter Natatorium.

published: 12/08/2007