Dec. 5, 2008
OSU Invitational Friday Women's Results
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Penn State men's and women's swimming teams are in good shape after the first day of the Ohio State Invitational. After five events the women's team is in second place behind Minnesota with 231 points while the men's team stands in third behind Ohio State and Minnesota with 200 points.
The women's team got off to a great start in the preliminaries as Kelly Nelson and Karie Haglund both earned NCAA `B' qualifying times in the 500 freestyle with times of 4:46.92 and 4:47.27 respectively. Kaitlin O'Brien went on to qualify for a third NCAA event in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.37. She previously qualified for the 200 breast and 400 IM against Virginia and Florida State on Nov. 15.
In the finals portion of the day, O'Brien went on to improve her time in the 200 IM for a second place finish touching the way in 1:59.34. The 400 medley relay team of Michelle Myers. Haglund, Nelson and Lindsey DeForrest placed second recording an NCAA `B' qualifying time of their own in 3:39.96.
The men's team had an impressive showing as well as the 400 medley relay team of Patrick Schirk, Brian Alden, Tim Williams and Vincent Reydams placed second earning an NCAA'B' time of 3:13.59. The 200 freestyle relay team of Brian Alden, Vincent Reydams, Jason Goldner and Basil Kaaki also had a strong performance finishing third with a time of 1:20.41 which is one second away from an NCAA qualifying time.
Earning points in individual events were Chris Sullivan in the 500 free, Williams and Scott Marino in the 200 IM, and Alden and Reydams in the 50 free.
The Ohio State Swimming and Diving Invite continues Saturday at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion with the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, the 100 breaststroke, the 100 back and three-meter diving. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. and finals are at 5 p.m.