Kelly Nelson swam an NCAA 'A' automatic qualifying time in finishing third in the 200 butterfly. She also earned NCAA 'B' cuts over the weekend in the 100 fly, 400 IM, and as part of the 400 free relay team.
TORONTO, Ont.; November 26, 2006 ?C The Penn State men??s and women??s swimming teams concluded their weekend at the Bell Grand Prix swimming meet on Sunday by earning a combined third place finish out of 69 teams that earned points at the meet. The scores were combined for all men??s and women??s teams and the Nittany Lions finished the three-day meet with a total of 909.5 points. Penn State finished just behind the second place University of Calgary Club team, which had 945.5 points while the UBC Dolphins club team won the meet with 1570 points.
On the final day of competition, the women??s team picked up two more new NCAA ??A?? automatic qualifying times and four new NCAA ??B?? provisional times, while the men picked up one more NCAA ??B?? cut. Over the three-day meet, the women??s team swam three new NCAA ??A?? times and 14 new NCAA ??B?? times while the men swam their first two ??B?? times of the year. The women now have three different ??A?? automatic qualifying times on the year and 16 ??B?? provisional qualifying times. One of those men??s ??B?? times this weekend resulted in a first place finish for Tim Williams in the 200 butterfly on Sunday.
The three-day meet was hosted by the Etobicoke Swimming Club Team out of Toronto and featured mainly club teams from around Canada as well as several members of the Canadian National Team, a few world record holders and a few Canadian University teams. It was held in a short-course meter pool as opposed to the usual short-course yard pool that most NCAA events are contested in.
The 200 butterfly, which has been the Penn State women??s best event in the early going of this season, produced two more NCAA ??A?? times as both Kelly Nelson (West Chester, Pa.) and Karie Haglund (Marietta, Ga.), who had previously swam ??B?? times in the 200, both punched their automatic tickets to the NCAA Championships in the 200 fly. Both made their ??A?? cuts in the morning preliminaries as Nelson swam the second fastest prelim time of 2:12.35 while Haglund came in the fourth fastest at 2:12.68. In the evening finals of the event, Nelson placed third, knocking .12 of a second off her prelim time at 2:12.23 while Haglund swam a slower time than her prelim race but still finished fifth. Kailey Morris (Lewisburg, Pa.) placed sixth in a ??B?? time of 2:13.66, just .85 of a second off an NCAA ??A?? cut. She previously had already made a ??B?? cut in the 200 fly.
Michelle Myers closed out her weekend by making an NCAA 'B' cut in the 100 backstroke on Sunday while finishing seventh and was also a part of three relay teams that made 'B' cuts during the meet. |
Two swimmers picked up NCAA ??B?? cuts in the 200 freestyle and Penn State had three swimmers earn points in that event. Molly Crispell (Boalsburg, Pa.) led the way with a fourth place finish in 2:00.89, which was actually slower than her prelim time of 2:00.33, which was the fastest prelim time of the morning session. Her prelim time was just .80 of a second off the NCAA ??A?? cut. Nikki Collins (Carmel, Ind.) also earned a ??B?? cut with a finals time of 2:03.01 to finish 12th. It was her second ??B?? cut of the year, as she also owns one in the 500 free. Jessica Barnes (Glenmoore, Pa.) rounded out the PSU point-gaining trio in the 200 free with a 15th place finish.
Michelle Myers (Boalsburg, Pa.), who was a part of two freestyle relay teams that earned NCAA ??B?? cuts on the first two nights made two more ??B?? cuts on the final night of the meet, one as part of another relay and one in an individual event. After missing a ??B?? cut by just .07 of a second in the 100 free, she put up a ??B?? time in the 100 backstroke, finishing seventh in 1:02.49. She had just missed a ??B?? cut in the morning prelims by just .04 of a second. She was also a part of the third place 400 medley relay team that finished in a ??B?? cut of 4:09.60. That team also featured Lyndsey Smith (Westminster, Md.), Haglund and Crispell, who earned four ??B?? cuts herself over the weekend in three relays and the aforementioned 200 free. Penn State??s ??B?? 400 medley relay team also earned points, finishing in seventh place. Also in the 100 back, Daphne Skelos (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) earned points with an 11th place finish.
Three women??s events were contested on Sunday that are not NCAA events, however Penn State had swimmers pick up points in two of those three events. In the 800 freestyle, Megan Palera (Santa Maria, Calif.) placed seventh in 8:51.56. In the 50 breaststroke, Abby Hoisington (Leawood, Kans.) finished 13th in :33.67 while Caitlin Meehan (West Chester, Pa.) came in 15th in :33.90.
Tim Williams (North Bend, Ohio) earned the second NCAA ??B?? cut for the men on the weekend as he put up a ??B?? time in the 200 butterfly. He swam the fastest time in the morning prelims at 2:00.55, just .07 of a second under the ??B?? standard but then improved his time by nearly three seconds in winning the event in 1:58.96. His first place finish was the only one of the weekend for either Penn State??s men or women.
Pat Schirk (Pottstown, Pa.), who earned an NCAA ??B?? cut in the 200 backstroke earlier in the meet, missed another ??B?? cut in the 100 back by just under a second but still finished fourth in :55.40. Dan Fimbianti (Mahwah, N.J.) also earned points for Penn State in the 100 back with a 15th place finish.
Chris Sullivan (above) finished third in the 1500 freestyle, just ahead of teammates Ben Ryan and David Kraft, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively. |
In the 200 free, Sean Biedermann (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Ryan DeWeese (Midlothian, Va.) each picked up points for Penn State with ninth and 14th place finishes, respectively. Additionally, the 400 medley relay team of Schirk, Miranda, Williams and Sean Swanepoel (Lincoln Mead, So. Afr.) placed third in 3:41.82 while the ??B?? team also picked up points with a seventh place finish.
Just like the women, three men??s events were contested that are not NCAA events and therefore Penn State swimmers were not able to put up any NCAA qualifying times in the events. However, the Nittany Lions picked up points in all three events and excelled in the 1500 freestyle, getting four of the top eight finishers in the longest event that the men have swam so far this year. Chris Sullivan (Naples, Fla.), Ben Ryan (State College, Pa.) and David Kraft (Vienna, Va.) placed third, fourth and fifth in the 1500 while Dito Calderon (Bowie, Md.) finished eighth. In the 100 IM, Biedermann earned points with a sixth place finish while Penn State also had three other swimmers pick up points in the ??B?? final with Brian Spittler (Woodstock, Ill.) finishing 11th, Jason Goldner (Allentown, Pa.) placing 14th and Dan Kaiserian (Radnor, Pa.) coming in 16th. In the 50 breast, Kyle Miranda (Louisville, Colo.) placed fourth.
After their highly successful weekend in Canada, both the men??s and women??s swimming teams will return to Happy Valley and will have the diving teams rejoin them for the teams?? next meet this Saturday, December 2. The Nittany Lions will host West Chester at 1:00 p.m. at McCoy Natatorium. The dual meet will be featured as the SwimmingWorldMagazine.com dual meet of the week.
Combined Team Scores - Through Event 42 1. Ubc Dolphins 1570 2. Univ OF Calgary Swim Club 945.5 3. Penn State University 909.5 4. Club Natation Piscine Parc Oly 432 5. Rouge et Or/Universit?? Laval 406.5 6. Island Swimming 398 7. Datona Beach Swimming 345 8. Toronto Swim Club 270.5 9. Etobicoke Swimming 231.5 10. Calgary Patriots 230 11. Simon Fraser Aquatics 191.5 12. Uvic-Pacific Coast Swimming 165 13. Ernestown Barracuda Swim Club 156 14. Region Of Waterloo Swim Club 135 15. Club de Natation M??gophias 127.5 16. Club de Natation Beaconsfield 119 17. Vernon Kokanee Swim Club 97 18. Pointe-Claire Swim Club 89 19. Nose Creek Swim Association 86 20. Club Natation Montr??al 81 21. Edmonton Keyano Swim Club 75 22. Ddo Swim Team 68 23. Barrie Trojan Swim Club 63.5 24. Langley Olympians Swim Club 60 25. Club Natation Boucherville 52.5 26. London Aquatic Club 52 27. Club de Natation C.S.Q. 51 28. Dalhousie University Swim Team 47.5 29. Cascade 44 30. Guelph Marlin Aq Club 40 31. University of Manitoba Bisons 37 31. Unattached Alberta 37 33. Unb Varsity Reds 35 34. Cranleigh 34 35. Club de Natation Les Riverains 30 35. Newmarket Stingrays 30 35. Nuevo Leon 30 38. Unattached Quebec 29 38. Ohio State University 29 38. Pickering Swim Club 29 41. Hamilton Aquatic Club 28 42. Unattached B. C. 27 43. University of Alberta Pandas a 26 43. Whitehorse Glacier Bears 26 45. ??.N St Lambert 25 46. Cobra Swim Club 24 46. Club de Natation Samak 24 48. University of Guelph 23 49. Conejo Simi Aquatics 22 50. Mount Pearl Marlins 20 51. Olympian Swim Club 15 52. McMaster University 12 52. LA Swim Club 12 52. Saskatoon Goldfins 12 52. West Vancouver Otters 12 56. University OF Toronto 11.5 57. North Bay "y" Titan Swim Club 8 58. Spartan Swim Club 7 58. Hyack Swim Club 7 60. Trent University 6.5 61. Scarborough Swim Club 6 61. Red Deer Catalina Swim Club 6 63. Markham Aquatic Club 5 64. Laurentian University 3 64. Trent Swim Club 3 64. Oakville Aquatic Club 3 67. North York Aquatic Club 2 67. Kirkland Lake Aquatic Club 2 69. Ducks Swimming 1