Men?' Swimming Remains in Seventh Place After Two Days at Big Ten ChampionshipsMen?' Swimming Remains in Seventh Place After Two Days at Big Ten Championships

Men?' Swimming Remains in Seventh Place After Two Days at Big Ten Championships


Kyle Miranda finished ninth in the 100 breaststroke.

COLUMBUS, Ohio; February 17, 2007 - The Penn State men??s swimming and diving team once again scored in every event that was contested on the second night of the Big Ten Championships on Saturday and with one day of action left, sits in seventh place with 190 points. They trail sixth place Purdue by 70.5 points and lead eighth place Wisconsin by 17.5 points. Michigan lead the championships by just two points over Minnesota while Ohio State is third.

Pat Schirk and Mike Alderman led the way for the Nittany Lions on night two. Schirk, who last night swam an NCAA ??A?? automatic qualifying time in the 100 backstroke on the opening leg of the 400 medley relay, finished fifth in the actual 100 back event in :47.71. Dan Fimbianti also scored for Penn State in the 100 back with a 13th place finish in :49.68.

One night after finishing third on the one-meter springboard, Alderman finished seventh on the three-meter springboard. After finishing third in the prelims with a score of 353.10, his second-highest of the year, Alderman scored a 343.30 in the finals.

After scoring in the 50 free last night, Dan Kaiserian was a part of the fifth place 200 medley relay team on Saturday that swam an NCAA 'B' cut.

The night started with another fifth place finish by a medley relay team. After the 400 medley relay team placed fifth last night in NCAA ??B?? qualifying time, the 200 medley relay team of Schirk, Kyle Miranda, Dan Kaiserian and Sean Swanepoel did the same with another NCAA ??B?? cut of 1:27.86.

Sean Biedermann won the consolation ??B?? final of the 200 free as he swam it in 1:37.58 to place ninth, shaving just under a tenth of a second off his NCAA ??B?? cut. Miranda did the same in the 100 breaststroke, shainvg just over a tenth of a second off his ??B?? cut to win the consolation final and finish ninth for the second straight year in the 100 breast in :54.81, a hundredth of a second better than his time in the finals last year.

Also picking up points for the Nittany Lions on Saturday night were Dito Calderon, who finished 15th in the 400 IM in 3:58.56,and Tim Williams, who finished 15th in the 100 butterfly in :48.94.

The night wrapped up with the 800 free relay team of Swanepoel, Spencer Maglich, Schirk and Biedermann swimming another NCAA ??B?? time of 6:32.57 to finish in fifth place.

The Big Ten Championships will wrap up tomorrow with seven more events. Penn State has a large contingent of swimmers that will enter the 1650 free while Schirk has a previous NCAA ??B?? time in the 200 back and Williams has a ??B?? time in the 200 fly, both which will be contested tomorrow as well.