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- Updated NCAA Qualifier List (through Friday Prelims)(.PDF)
- Updated Top Times (through Friday Prelims)
- Friday's Photos
- Big Ten Championship Central
- Ohio State's Big Ten Championships Page
| Sean Biedermann swam his fastest-career time in the 200 IM to advance to tonight's finals. |
COLUMBUS, Ohio; February 16, 2007 - Penn State swimmers Ryan DeWeese and Sean Biedermann each swam their first NCAA ??B?? provisional qualifying times of the year to advance to tonight??s finals of their respective events. Dan Kaiserian also advanced to the finals of his event to lead the Nittany Lions on the first day of preliminaries at the Big Ten Men??s Swimming and Diving Championships. Biedermann and Kaiserian each swam their career best times in their respective events to advance.
The championships were originally scheduled to begin yesterday but began today after being postponed by one day due to the weather and travel issues. It will now run through Sunday.
DeWeese was the only one of nine Nittany Lions swimmers to advance to the finals of the 500 freestyle. He came in just under the NCAA ??B?? standard, finishing 16th in 4:26.26, the third ??B?? cut of the year for the men??s team and his second-fastest career time. Just missing the cut into the finals were Chris Sullivan and Ben Ryan, who finished tied for 21st and 23rd, respectively, in 4:27.68 and 4:28.45. DeWeese, a sophomore, advances to the 500 free finals for the second straight year, as he was also the only Nittany Lions to advance to last year??s finals, where he fininshed 12th.
| Ryan DeWeese advanced to the finals of the 500 free at Big Ten's for the second straight year. |
Biedermann also made it back to the finals of the 200 IM for the third straight year. He finished 11th as a freshman and 13th last year. He swam the ninth-fastest prelim time this afternoon and in an NCAA ??B?? cut and a career-best time of 1:47.93 and will be in the center lane in tonight??s ??B?? finals. He just missed making the ??A?? finals by .10 of a second.
Kaiserian also made it back to the finals of the 50 free for the second straight year. The senior sprinter, who placed 15th in the 50 free at Big Ten??s last year, just missed his first ??B?? cut of the year by swimming it in :20.33, just .15 of a second off a ??B?? cut. He finished 13th and prelims and just missed out being joined in the finals by a pair of Nittany Lions in Sean Swanepoel and Vincent Reydams, who finished 19th and 20th, respectively, just .03 and .05 of a second off the last time that qualified for the ??B?? finals.