March 1, 2008
Ann Arbor, Mich. - Pat Schirk swam to a fifth place finish in the finals of the 100 backstroke to highlight the performances in the finals on the second night of finals competition at the Men's Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships. The 800 freestyle relay team also placed fifth and knocked over six seconds off their previous best NCAA `B' time.
Schirk, who already owns an NCAA `A' automatic qualifying time in the 200 back, swam an NCAA `B' cut of :48.03 in the finals, which was slower than his fastest time of the year but still good enough to place fifth for the highest finish so far for the Nittany Lions at this year's championships. Dan Fimbianti swam his season-best time in the `C' finals of the 100 back, finishing 14th in :49.84.
The 800 free relay team of Sean Swanepoel, Josh Graham, Ben Ryan and Sean Biedermann finished fifth in 6:33.34, over six seconds better than the previous best time of the year for a Penn State 800 free relay team. It was also the first NCAA `B' cut of the year for a PSU 800 free relay team.
While Schirk was the only Nittany Lion that qualified for the `A' finals on Friday, Penn State did have another swimmer swim in the `B' finals of an event. Biedermann finished 11th in the 200 free, touching the wall in an NCAA `B' time of 1:37.80, .12 of a second slower than his morning prelim time, which was his fastest of the year. Josh Graham, who also swam an NCAA `B' time in the morning prelims, finished 15th in the `C' finals in 1:38.16.
Also picking up points for Penn State on Friday night was both Basil Kaaki and Tim Williams in the `C' finals of the 100 fly. Kaaki improved his prelims time by .14 of a second and finished 15th in :48.56 while Williams finished 18th after swimming an NCAA `B' time in the morning. Josh Bonner also picked up points with a 16th place finish on the three-meter springboard diving. The 200 medley relay team of Schirk, Kyle Miranda, Williams and Swanepoel narrowly missed an NCAA `B' cut as it finished eighth in 1:29.20.
As a team, the Nittany Lions remained in eighth place after Friday's action with 190 points. They lead ninth place Iowa by 42 points and trail seventh place Wisconsin by 52 points.