Nov. 30, 2007
Princeton, N.J. - After qualifying several swimmers for the finals in this morning's preliminary heats, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams are both in first place by wide margins after the first day of the Princeton Big Al Invitational hosted by Princeton University. The men's team leads the seven-team field with 367.5 points, well in front of the second place and host Princeton, which is in second with 209.5 points. The women are also in first by just over 100 points as they have 286 to lead the field while second place Princeton has 181.
The women's team captured first place in three out of the six events contested on the first day of the three-day meet. The men did even better, finishing first in four out of six events. Both squads piled up a load of points in the point-heavy relays with both teams having two relay teams finish in the top five in three out of the four relays contested on the night.
The women's `A' team in the 200 free relay was disqualified, however the `B' team of Karie Haglund, Colby Capretto, Erin Luley and Caitlin Meehan still finished fourth in 1:37.45 to pick up an important 30 points. In the 400 medley relay, the `A' team of Michelle Myers, Caitlin Meehan, Kelly Nelson and Molly Crispell won in an NCAA `B' time of 3:42.32, lowering the previous `B' time in that event for the Nittany Lions. The men's 200 free relay team of Vincent Reydams, Sean Swanepoel, Rob Felty and Basil Kaaki won in a `B' time of 1:20.54, the first `B' cut for a men's relay team this year. The `B' team finished fifth. The men did even better in the 400 medley relay as the `A' team of Pat Schirk, Kyle Miranda, Tim Williams and Reydams won in a time of 3:17.36, another `B' cut. The `B' team finished second in 3:21.77.
Jon Cochrane won the 500 freestyle, one of four first place finishes for the men on the night. |
Both the men and women also piled up more new NCAA qualifying times on the night as well as lowered previous cuts. Including the one `B' cut lowered by the women's 400 medley team, the women swam to four new `B' cuts and one new `A' cut on the night while also lowering four previous `B' times. The men swam to the two new `B' cuts in each of the two relays.
Capturing first place for the men in addition to the two first place relay finishes were Jon Cochrane in the 500 free and Jason Goldner in the 50 free, who just edged out teammate Reydams by .08 of a second in :20.51. Both of those events were very strong for the Nittany Lions as they had five of the top eight finishers in the 500 free and 10 of the top 16. David Kraft finished second, Chris Sullivan fourth, Ryan DeWeese sixth and Ben Ryan seventh. In the 50 free, Penn State had the top four finishers as Goldner, Reydams, Swanepoel and Kaaki finished first through fourth. They also had five of the top eight as Felty finished sixth, and six of the top 16.
In the women's 500 free, the Nittany Lions had four of the top eight finishers and six of the top 16, led by Kelly Nelson in second place in 4:47.84. She, along with Kailey Morris in fourth and Stephanie Roop in fifth all lowered their previous NCAA `B' cuts. Sarah Baker swam her first `B' cut of the year with a sixth place finish. Molly Crispell finished 12th and Alexandra Young placed 13th.
Jason Goldner won the 50 free, one of four Penn State finishers in the top four in that event. |
Kaitlin O'Brien added an NCAA `A' cut in the 200 IM to her previous `A' time in the 400 IM as she won that event in 1:58.88, well under the `A' standard of 2:00.34. Abby Hoisington and Daphne Skelos finished third and fourth, respectively, both in `B' cuts. The Nittany Lions dominated the women's 200 IM as they had sixth of the top eight finishers with Meehan, Clare Clemens and Haglund finishing fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
Myers swam an NCAA `B' time of :22.76 to win the 50 free as she also had the fastest time in prelims. She has the only swimmers in the field to log an NCAA cut in the 50 free. Lindsey DeForrest finished 11th.
The men's 200 IM saw Williams finish second in 1:50.35 and he was followed Sean Biedermann in third in 1:50.67. Schirk finished eighth.
Michelle Myers put up her third NCAA 'B' cut of the year in an individual event as she won the 50 free. |
On the diving boards, the Penn State women stood out as they placed three in the top eight in the three-meter springboard. Courtney Adlam finished third with a score of 261.90 and she was followed closely in fourth by Kimberlee Peifer, who scored a 254.40. Freshman Illana Zeises finished seventh with a 194.00 after scoring 249.75 in the prelims.
The men's diving team got points from Justin Bonner in 12th place with a 236.15 and Josh Bonner in 14th place with a 231.30.
The meet will continue on Saturday as prelims begin at 11:00 a.m. The finals tomorrow night will get underway at 7:00 p.m.