Dec. 1, 2007
Princeton, N.J. - Kaitlin O'Brien broke the school and Big Ten records in the 400 IM and the Penn State men's and women's swimming and diving teams remained at the top of the team standings after the second day of the Princeton Big Al Invitational, with both teams extending their leads to even larger margins than after the first night of the meet on Friday.
After two days and 28 events contested, 14 each for men and women, the Nittany Lion men sit in first place by 181 points with a total of 691.5 points. Princeton is second with 510.5 points. The women's team leads second place Princeton by 320 points as the Nittany Lions have accumulated 756 points to Princeton's 436.
Kaitlin O'Brien highlighted the second day of the meet for the women's team as she broke her own school record in the 400 IM by swimming a 4:09.71, the fastest time in the morning prelims. Then, in the finals on Saturday night, she not only rebroke her new record but she also broke the Big Ten record in the 400 IM by swimming a time of 4:08.40, breaking the old Big Ten mark of 4:08.92 previously held by Bethany Pendleton of Wisconsin from 2004. Despite breaking the Big Ten record by .52 of a second and her own previous school record by 3.16 seconds, she finished second in the finals of the 400 IM as Princeton's Ali Aemiseggar won the event in a time of 4:06.79. The NCAA `A' automatic qualifying standard is 4:15.63.
Sean Biedermann won the 200 freestyle as Penn State had the first, second and third place finishers. |
In addition to O'Brien record-breaking performance, the Nittany Lion women also dominated the 400 IM, as they placed all six of the entries in that event in the top eight. Finishing behind O'Brien were Daphne Skelos in third (4:15.99), Kelly Nelson in fourth (4:18.30), Karie Haglund in fifth (4:20.85), Clare Clemens in seventh (4:21.90) and Kailey Morris in eighth (4:23.35). Skelos, Nelson, Haglund and Clemens' times were all NCAA `B provisional qualifying times.
The women won three events on the night out of eight that were contested. The 200 medley relay team of Kaitlyn Ferguson, Abby Hoisington, Nelson and Michelle Myers won in a time of 1:41.31, good for the first NCAA `B' cut of the year for the team in that event. They beat out the Penn State `B' team of Skelos, Caitlin Meehan, Karie Haglund and Molly Crispell that finished second in 1:44.37.
The 100 breaststroke saw more fast times and the third and fourth NCAA `A' times of the year for the women. Meehan and Hoisington joined O'Brien as individuals now owning automatic NCAA times on the year. Meehan won the event in a personal career-best time of 1:01.76 while Hoisington came in second just .04 of a second behind Meehan with a career personal-best time of 1:01.80. O'Brien finished seventh and Clemens, Haglund and Lyndsey Smith finished ninth, 11th and 16th, respectively, to give the Nittany Lions six of the top 16 finishers in the 100 breast.
Just after Meehan and Hoisington made their `A' cuts in the 100 breast, Myers earned her first career NCAA `A' cut as she finished second in the 100 backstroke with a time of :54.24. Finishing just behind her was Ferguson, who just missed an `A' cut by .31 of a second in finishing third in a `B' cut time of :54.69. Skelos finished in fourth.
Caitlin Meehan swam a lifetime best and NCAA 'A' time in winning the 100 breaststroke. |
The other first place finish of the night for the women was by the 800 free relay team of Nelson, Crispell, Roop and Baker, who finished first in an NCAA `B' time of 7:17.69, lowering their previous NCAA `B' cut from earlier this year.
Stephanie Roop swam an NCAA `B' cut in finishing third in the 200 free. She finished in 1:49.54. Crispell finished fifth. In the 100 butterfly, Ferguson and Alexandra Young finished third and fourth, respectively, with Sarah Baker placing seventh.
One night after winning four of the six events that were contested on the first night of the meet, the men's team won five out of the eight events contested on Saturday. They started the night by continuing their relay dominance as of late, as the 200 medley relay of Pat Schirk, Kyle Miranda, Sean Swanepoel and Vincent Reydams won in 1:30.47 by over two seconds over the second place team.
The Nittany Lions took the top two spots in the 100 butterfly as Tim Williams won in :49.31, just edging out teammate Basil Kaaki by .05 of a second. Rob Felty finished seventh.
Pat Schirk won the 100 back and lowered his previous NCAA 'B' cut in the event. |
Penn State took the top three spots and six of the top eight in the men's 200 freestyle. Sean Biedermann won in 1:38.23, followed by Jon Cochrane in 1:38.59 and Ben Ryan in 1:39.47. Swanepoel finished fifth, Spencer Maglich sixth and Ryan DeWeese eighth.
Schirk lowered his previous NCAA `B' cut in the 200 back as won that event in :48.25 and by over a second over the second place finisher. Dan Fimbianti placed third.
Kyle Miranda finished second in the 100 breast, touching the wall in :56.02.
The night ended for the men with a first place finish in the 800 free relay. Ryan, Swanepoel, Cochrane and Biedermann finished in 6:39.76.
Both the men's and women's divers did well. The men's performance was highlighted by Josh Bonner, who finished second with a score of 330.20 in the finals of the three-meter springboard. His twin brother, Justin, finished 16th.
On the women's side, Kim Peifer placed third on the one-meter springboard with a score of 262.95. Courtney Adlam finished 12th.
The three-day meet will wrap up tomorrow with prelims beginning at 10:00 a.m. and the finals at 6:00 p.m.