- Men's Big Ten Swimming & Diving Notes/Guide(.PDF)
- Big Ten Preview/Championship Central
- Ohio State's Big Ten Championships Page
| David Kraft will look to lead the large contingent of Penn State distance swimmers looking to score at Big Ten's. |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; February 15, 2007 - The Penn State men's swimming and diving team will participate at the Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend at Ohio State University. The three-day meet was originally scheduled to begin today but due to the winter storm that hit the Midwest and Northeast this week causing travel problems, the championships were postponed by one day and will now begin on Friday, February 16 and will run through Sunday, February 18.
The Nittany Lions will be looking to improve their eighth place finish of a year ago. Penn State has finished eighth in each of last two years at Big Ten's but seem to be hitting the championships at the right time of the year as they have won seven of their last eight dual meets of the season heading into Big Ten's. After starting the season 0-6 in dual meets, the Nittany Lions won seven of their last eight to end the season, including a win over nationally-ranked Notre Dame at the Shamrock Invitational three weeks ago at their final regular season meet. Several Nittany Lions swam their best times of the year at that meet and several more have swam their best times of the year in January as they built momentum toward Big Ten's.
Mike Alderman has NCAA Zone qualifying scores on both springboards entering the championships and is the Big Ten defending champion on the one-meter board. Two Penn State swimmers, Pat Schirk and Tim Williams, have swam NCAA 'B' provisional qualifying times this year, Schirk in the 200 backstroke and Williams in the 200 butterfly.
| Mike Alderman is the defending Big Ten champion in the one-meter springboard diving. |
Other top Nittany Lions swimmers that scored at Big Ten's last year and return this year looking to do the same and improve their finishes include: Sean Swanepoel (50, 100 free), Dan Kaiserian (50, 100 free), Ryan DeWeese (500 free, 200 back), David Kraft (1650 free), Schirk (100 and 200 back), Kyle Miranda (100 and 200 breast), Sean Biedermann (200 IM) and Dito Calderon (400 IM). Alderman also placed 15th in the three-meter diving last year in addition to winning the one-meter.
Preliminary heats will get underway each day at noon with the nightly finals starting at 7:00 p.m.