Nov. 29, 2007
Princeton Big Al Invitational Notes
Head coach Dorenkott's latest podcast (11-27) (.mp3)
University Park, Pa. - The men's and women's swimming and diving teams will head to Princeton, N.J. this weekend to compete at the Princeton Big Al Invitational. The meet will be the second championship-format competition meet of the year for the Nittany Lions and the second in three weekends after the Nittany Lions competed at the Hoosierland Open Invitational two weekends ago. It will also be the final meet of 2007 for Penn State as the Nittany Lions will not compete again until January.
The meet will be the fourth of the year for Penn State, which has so far hosted two meets and then swam at Indiana two weekends ago. The Princeton Invitational gets underway on Friday, November 30 and runs through Sunday, December 2 with preliminary heats each morning followed by the championship finals each evening.
Both the men's and women's squads have gotten off to a very fast start this season. The women's team owns 25 NCAA 'B' provisional qualifying times and one 'A' automatic qualifying time this year through only the first three meets. Two divers have also scored NCAA Zone qualifying scores on the one and three-meter springboards. The men have logged three NCAA 'B' cuts so far this year in just three meets compared to only two heading into Big Ten Championships last year. One diver has also scored an NCAA Zone qualifying score.
After this meet, both teams will take some time off from competition for finals and then winter break before the teams head to Florida for their annual training trip. The swimming teams will next compete in Florida while on this trip on Sunday, January 6 when they swim at Florida Gulf Coast University. That meet will also feature junior college power Indian River Community College. The divers will next be in action at the Georgia Diving Invite January 4-6 in Athens, Ga.
David Kraft has an NCAA 'B' time in the 1650 freestyle, one of three such times for the men entering this weekend's meet. |
A live video feed for the Princeton Invitational is available on Princeton's athletics website, goprincetontigers.com. Visit that site for more information on the video feed.
Penn State head swimming coach Bill Dorenkott discusses the team and previews this weekend's meet in his latest podcast, which is available by clicking the link above.