| Kelly Nelson |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; January 30, 2007 - Kelly Nelson (West Chester, Pa.) and Kimberlee Peifer (Camp Hill, Pa.) of the women??s swimming and diving team were honored by the Big Ten on Tuesday as Nelson was named the Big Ten Women??s Swimmer of the Week and Peifer was named the Big Ten Women??s Diver of the Week after their respective performances at the Shamrock Invitational last weekend. The weekly award is the second of the year for Nelson, who was also named the conference Swimmer of the Week on November 28th. Peifer??s weekly award makes her the first Penn State female diver to earn the conference??s weekly award since Alison Riccobono in 2004.
Nelson had a standout meet at the five-team, two-day event hosted by Notre Dame last weekend. She swam in seven events and placed first in five of those events, two individual events and three relays. She also logged a second place finish and a sixth place finish in her other two events. She was a part of the first place 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams as the Nittany Lions won all three freestyle relay events. Individually, she won the 200 free in the first time she swam in that event this year and also took first in the 200 butterfly. In the 200 free, she put up an NCAA ??B?? provisional qualifying time, her team-leading seventh NCAA cut of the year (one ??A?? cut and six ??B?? cuts). She was also part of the second place 200 medley relay team.
| Kimberlee Peifer |
Peifer had a strong weekend on the diving boards as she placed third in both the one-meter and three-meter springboard events in South Bend. She had the highest average score and the highest average finish of the meet of all of the 15 divers in the field at the meet as she was the only diver to finish in the top three in both events. She scored a 260.05 on the one-meter and a 252.95 on the three-meter. Other than her four first place finishes on the season in the one-meter, her third place finish was her next best of the year.