Swimming

ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - The 2008 Capital Athletic Conference swimming championships got underway Friday on the campus of St. Mary's (Md.) College. The first 10 events are in the books as the Salisbury University men's and women's teams currently sit in the middle of the pack in fourth place.

The Sea Gull men's team set four school records on Friday evening in the finals of the first five men's events as Salisbury accumulated 111 team points. The SU women's team has 105 points through five women's events.

Senior Cole Mangum set a school record in the 50 yard freestyle earlier in the day in the preliminaries with a time of 21.50. The fifth-year senior shaved off more time in the finals as he finished third overall with a time of 21.43.

Sophomore Mike Ferrari did the same thing as Mangum in the 200 IM. Ferrari set a new school mark in the preliminaries as he clocked in with a time of 2:01.01. In the 200 IM finals, he took a few tenths of a second off that time as he placed fourth with a time of 2:00.98.

The SU men's relay teams set two school records on Friday evening. The 400 medley relay team of freshman Drew Robichaud, Ferrari, junior Benjamin Overholt and Mangum smashed the school mark of 3:47.99 (2002) as they took more then five seconds off with a new time of 3:42.52 (fifth place). The 200 free relay team of Overholt, senior Ross Spangler, Mangum and junior Brad Buckley improved on last year's mark of 1:28.23 with a 1:27.53. The Sea Gulls last year received All-CAC honors in this event but just missed out repeating with a third place finish Friday night.

Salisbury's women's 200 free relay team of freshman Katy Turner, sophomore Angie Hammond, senior Erin Smith and junior Raienne South finished fourth with a time of 1:43.88.

First-place University of Mary Washington dominated the women's events as the Eagles swept several of the top places in the five events on Friday evening. In the 200 IM the Eagles took the top five spots before Salisbury's Turner broke the string with a sixth place finish (2:17.44).

The Sea Gull women's 400 medley relay team of sophomore Lindsay Southworth, Turner, sophomore Maureen Gillespie and South closed out the women's events on Friday with a fourth place finish (4:17.76).

The second day of the CAC championships will get underway Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in the SMC pool.