MEN’S SWIMMING
ERIE — Freshman Chase Bietz (Clearfield) etched his name into the Penn State Behrend and Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference record books seven times to claim gold medals and then was honored as Newcomer of the Year for the 2019 AMCC Championships in Junker Center Pool last week.
Bietz splashed his way to new standards for three individual events.
He swept the breaststroke races, a 57.11-second sprint in the 100 was good for school and pool records and a 2:05.73 effort in the 200 established school, pool and AMCC Meet marks.
His other win came in the 200 individual medley where he touched the wall at 1:54.15, almost six seconds ahead of the runner-up, to break the school and AMCC Meet records.
Bietz was a member of two Lion relay foursomes that zipped to school, pool, AMCC Open and AMCC Meet records.
He had a 46.63 second split in teaming with three-time AMCC Swimmer of the Year Mark Patterson, Quinn Fischer and Alex Croll to win in 3:07.17 and had a 1:42.64 third leg for the 800 freestyle unit that won in 6:52.56. Patterson, Fischer and James Connolly swam the other legs.
Bietz followed Patterson, Fischer and Croll in the 200 free relay with his 20.61 anchor stopping the clock at 1:24.36 for a school record.
The 400 medley foursome of Patterson, Bietz with a 57.34 breaststroke leg, Matt Karenbauer and Fischer combined for a 3:27.65 that lowered the pool mark.
With his impressive performance, Bietz raised his first-year win totals to 16 for individual races and 17 for relays.
Penn State Behrend breezed to its 13th consecutive AMCC team title with 895 points, more than twice as many as runner-up Alfred State (421). Pitt Bradford (228), Penn State Altoona (223) and SUNY Delhi (119) were far back.
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GROVE CITY — Senior Michael Spencer (Clearfield) anchored two winning relay teams for Westminster at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships in Grove City’s James E. Longnecker Competition Pool last week.
His 21.01-second split stopped the clock at 1:24.25 for the 200-yard freestyle foursome. Matt Kwalick, Clay Murray and Jake Musselman swam the first three legs.
Spencer followed David Peffer, Trevor McCabe and Murray into the pool and recorded a 20.89 split that gave the 200 medley quartet a 2.33.06 time.
Spencer also earned points for the Titans in three individual events, placing fourth in the 50 free in 21.53, eighth in the 100 backstroke in 56.85 and ninth in the 100 free B Final in 48.06, a time that would have been good for sixth if he had made the A Final.
His 100 back effort was a personal record, and his other two times were season-bests.
Westminster was second with 846 points in the five-team meet won by Grove City with 948 points.
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MEN’S BASKETBALL
GREENSBURG — Junior Cody Spaid (Clearfield) experienced one of his best weeks of the season with 22 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three steals in Pitt-Greensburg’s season-ending losses to Franciscan 75-74 in overtime last Tuesday and 98-76 at Hilbert (N.Y.) Saturday.
The 6-7 forward/center had 13 points, a game-high 12 rebounds and a team-high three steals in the Bobcats’ final home game.
Spaid started all 25 games and averaged 23 minutes with 183 points (7.3 ppg) and a team-best 155 rebounds (6.2 rpg).
He was second in steals with 21 and blocked shots with 23.
The Bobcats finished 7-18 with a 4-14 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference record.
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MONT ALTO — Junior Bernard Rauckhorst (Curwensville) and freshman Josh Terry (Curwensville) registered six points and three rebounds apiece for Penn State DuBois in a 111-77 Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference loss Friday.
Rauckhorst had two points and two rebounds last Wednesday when the Lions fell at Penn State Beaver 71-64.
Rauckhorst had three starts in 24 appearances with 85 points, 60 rebounds, six assists, four steals and seven blocks.
Terry played in 17 games, one a start, and had 52 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists, 10 steals and six blocks.
The Lions ended the season 1-18 in the PSUAC West Division and 5-20 overall.
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MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
EDINBORO — Slippery Rock sophomore Ethan McGinnis (Clearfield) finished second in the high jump and established new personal-bests in two other events at the Edinboro Last Chance Invitational Friday.
He cleared 1.80 meters (5 feet, 10¾ inches) in the high jump.
His PRs were 9.82 seconds in the 60-meters hurdles and 8.06 meters (25-5½) in the shot put, with finishes of seventh and 25th respectively.
McGinnis placed fourth with a triple jump of 12.62 meters (41-5).
He has qualified to compete in both jumps at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships Friday and Saturday in Edinboro’s Zafiroski Rec Center.
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BASEBALL
HARDEEVILLE, S.C. — Junior outfielder Thomas Summers (Clearfield) notched his first run batted in for Southeastern (Fla.) with a sacrifice fly and also drew a walk in the Fire’s 31-0 rout of host South Carolina Beaufort Friday.
He made two other appearances last week as the Fire swept the three Sun Conference games from the Sand Sharks after taking two non-league home games from Edward Watters College earlier.
Summers played at Maryland-Eastern Shore in 2016 and Indiana River (Fla.) State College in 2017 and redshirted at Northern Colorado last year.
He has a career .204 batting average with 17 extra base hits and 19 runs batted in.
Southeastern (11-2) is the reigning Sun Conference and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics champion, finishing 59-7 last year, and received all 18 No. 1 votes in this year’s NAIA Coaches Preseason Top 25 Poll.
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SOFTBALL
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Freshman Brooke Cline (Clearfield) singled twice in her first game for Clarion and started at shortstop or third base in five of the Golden Eagles’ six losses at the February Freezeout last weekend.
She wound up 2-for-13 with one run batted in.
Clarion came up short against New Haven (Conn.) 5-1, Merrimack (Mass.) 7-2, Southern Connecticut State 10-6, Georgian Court (N.J.) 9-2, Lemoyne 5-3 and Southern New Hampshire 11-0.