?”17204″ “2008-11-25 03:23:04” “NASCAR: Lagging Behind on Environmental Policy Since 1948” “opinion” “21” “Breaking News” “537” “2008-11-25” “Andrew Dubbins ” “?”17206” “2008-11-25 03:26:24” “Obama, Don’t Forget the Big Easy” “opinion” “17” “Viewpoint” “537” “2008-11-25” “Katherine Luer ” “?”17207” “2008-11-26 03:48:38” “Hoyas Cap Fall Season at Patriot Invitational” “sports” “73” “Swimming and Diving” “James Leiva ” “Last weekend the Georgetown swimming and diving teams traveled to Fairfax, Va., to compete in the Patriot Invitational at George Mason University. The Hoyas were among a field of eight teams that included George Mason, American, George Washington, Seton Hall, Shippenburg, University of Maryland Baltimore County and UNC Wilmington. This was the team’s last multi-team meet until the Big East championships at the end of the season.While the UMBC Retrievers won both the men’s and women’s overall events, the Georgetown women’s squad finished fifth and the men’s squad managed a sixth-place finish. This weekend also saw 31 swimmers and divers record the necessary results to qualify for the Big East championships, which is as many as last season.”The invitational gave us a feel of where we are now,” Head Coach Steven Cartwright said.Several Hoyas turned in notable performances and broke school records. Freshman Brad Crist broke the GU record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 59.30 in the preliminaries. However, Crist was outpaced in the final by sophomore Thomas Graham, who achieved a time of 59.65. Freshman Victor Lopez-Cantera’s time of 1:53.86 topped the Hoya record for the 200 butterfly as he won the consolation final. Freshman Kelly Donlin broke the freshman record for the 200 backstroke in the final on Saturday with a time of 2:11.20. Cartwright said that it was a great sign to see team records broken in the middle of the season.Several other Hoyas gave impressive performances in either the finals or consolation finals. Junior Laura Stark qualified for both the 100 butterfly and freestyle finals, finishing third and seventh, respectively. She also set a personal best time of 52.78 in the freestyle 100 final. Sophomore Ray Zomerfeld won the 200 breaststroke consolation final. The women’s 400 freestyle relay team of Stark, Donlin, junior Lindsay Vickroy and sophomore Mallory Kiplinger placed fourth in the final with a time of 3:33:41.In the men’s 200 butterfly consolation final, freshmen Greg Germain and Trevor Kosmo and sophomore Keenan Timko all swam well enough to qualify for the Big East race. Freshman Robert Gokey qualified in the 100 freestyle bonus final with a time of 43.80.Cartwright said that the performances last weekend put the team in good stead for the winter meets that lead up to the Big East championship.”Both our swimmers and our divers performed incredibly well, and their performances went far above my expectations,” he said.This was the team’s final meet of the semester; however, Georgetown will continue to train for when the season resumes in January. The Hoyas will travel to Puerto Rico for a week before next semester starts and will be back in action on Jan. 16 at American as their season builds up in preparation for the Big East championships in February.”