Valparaiso’s men’s swim team finished in third place at the Coers Invitational on Saturday held on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

The Crusaders finished with 246 points while Grand Valley State won the title with 817 points.  Ball State was second with 639 points, while Findlay finished fourth.

Valpo started the day with a third place effort in the 200 medley relay as the team of David Sivak (Hobart, Ind./Hobart H.S.), Trevor Trimpe (New Palestine, Ind./Connersville H.S.), Tate Wegehaupt (Tigard, Ore./Tigard H.S.) and Russell Deghi (Sebestopol, Calif./Analy H.S.) turned in a time of 1:43.07.

Sivak then posted his second runner-up finish of the weekend in the 400 individual medley with his mark of 4:15.22, just two seconds off of the pace.  He also posted a third place finish in the 200 back in the evening session with a time of 1:59.15.

Wegehaupt added an individual fourth place time of 1:00.88 in the 100 breaststroke, finish just over a second out of the top spot in the morning before finishing second in the 200 breaststroke, touching the wall in 2:13.98.

Guillermo Aguilar (San Salvador, El Salvador/Colegio Internacional de San Salvador H.S.) turned in the team’s best time in the 100 butterfly with his seventh place finish in 55.55 seconds.  He also had the best 200 fly time of 2:01.81, finishing sixth.

Thomas Patrick (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead H.S.) had the team’s best 200 free mark at 2:00.04 while Kevin Fedde (Fort Collins, Colo./Heritage Christian H.S.) posted the school’s best 100 backstroke mark at 59.58 seconds and the top 100 free of 50.81 seconds.

In the 800 free relay, Wegehaupt, Trimpe, Fedde, and Sivak turned in a time of 7:15.42, to finish second and wrap up the morning session.

The evening began with Steve Booth (Saint Joseph, Mich./Saint Joseph H.S.) leading the way in the 1650 free with a time of 18:54.53. 

The final event of the day saw Sivak, Wegehaupt, Deghi, and Trimpe post a time of 3:18.45 in the 400 freestyle relay, finishing third.

The Crusaders will return to the pool December 2-4 at the Calvin Invitational.  Thursday night’s events begin at 5 p.m. CST.