Nov. 15, 2007
Bloomington, Ind. - The Penn State men's and women's swimming teams started out the Hoosierland Open Invitational well on Thursday as both the men's and women's relay teams, the men's freestyle sprinters as well as the women's distance swimmers all stood out for the Nittany Lions. The women's team swam two new NCAA `B' qualifying times on the night. Team scores are not being kept at the three-day championship format meet.
The women's 200 freestyle relay team of Michelle Myers, Kelly Nelson, Lindsey DeForrest and Sarah Baker finished in third place in a time of 1:33.81, shaving a few hundreths of a second off the previous best time for the Nittany Lions 200 free relay team this year. The night ended for the women with a second place finish in the 400 medley relay in 3:44.57 by the team of Myers, Caitlin Meehan, Nelson and Baker.
The men's relay teams also did extremely well as both the 200 free and 400 medley relay teams finished in second place. The 200 free relay team of Vincent Reydams, Basil Kaaki, Rob Felty and Jason Goldner finished in 1:22.65 while the 400 medley relay team of Pat Schirk, Kyle Miranda, Kaaki and Reydams touched the wall in 3:22.01.
In the women's 500 free, the Nittany Lions had three finishers in the top eight (championship final). Kaitlin O'Brien swam to an NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time of 4:52.80 to finish fifth. Placing just behind her in sixth was Baker in 4:54.53 while Karie Haglund came in eighth in 4:59.12. As they often do, the Nittany Lion women dominated the 500 free by having five total finishers in the top 16. Stephanie Roop and Kailey Morris placed 15th and 16th, respectively, to round out the consolation final.
Basil Kaaki was a part of two second place relay teams and also finished sixth in the 50 free. |
The men's 50 free final saw three Penn State men place in the top eight, led by Reydams, who finished fifth in :20.83. Kaaki was just behind him in sixth in :20.95 while Rob Felty finished eighth in :21.21. Goldner finished 12th in the consolation final in :21.40.
Also performing well on the first night of the meet was Nelson in the women's 200 IM. She finished second in 2:02.58, an NCAA `B" time. Chris Sullivan finished fourth in the men's 500 free in a time of 4:33.67 while David Kraft placed eighth in 4:42.66.
Other highlights for the Nittany Lions in the evening finals session included Tim Williams in the 200 IM. He finished in a tie for seventh place in 1:55.69. Michelle Myers also placed seventh in the 50 free in :23.60. DeForrest finished 15th in the consolation finals in :24.11.
Penn State's divers are not participating in this meet.
Tomorrow's action will continue with morning preliminaries followed by evening finals. Live scoring is available on Indiana's athletic website, iuhoosiers.com. A link to Indiana's live scoring can be found on GoPSUsports.com.