Feb. 24, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Penn State men's swimming & diving team got off to a roaring start at the 2010 Big Ten Championships, setting a new school records and making two NCAA "B" times in the opening events, the 200 Medley and 800 Freestyle Relays. The Nittany Lions sit in fourth place going into Thursday's action.
The team of Graham Risley (Riverside, Ill.), Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.), Basil Kaaki (Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia) and Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) led off the day's proceedings with the best performance by a 200 Medley Relay, finishing in a time of 1:26.65, missing the school record by six-hundreths of a second, which was set last year at 1:26.59. Additionally, the Lions bested their seed time (1:30.68) by over four seconds, just .27 off second-place Ohio State.
The Nittany Lions backed up the performance with a solid outing in the 800 Freestyle Relay, finishing in fifth with a time of 6:28.11, easily making an NCAA "B" time. The team consisted of Alden, Ben Ryan (State College, Pa.), Luke Bushman (Green Bay, Wis.) and Jon Cochrane (Boalsburg, Pa.), who bested their seed time by nearly nine seconds. The current group of Lions broke a nine-year record by 1.7 seconds. Moreover, Alden's lead off leg of 1:35.49 is a new 200 freestyle record at Penn State and an NCAA "B" time.
Michigan won both of Wednesday's events, leading the Big Ten Championship with 80 points, followed by Ohio State (68), Minnesota (62) and Penn State (60).
Penn State will return to the pool on Thursday with preliminaries for the 500 freestyle, 50 freestyle and 200 IM beginning at Noon. Finals for those three events plus the 1m diving and 400 Medley Relay finals will begin at 7:00 p.m.
--NITTANY LIONS--
Key
( ) - Points
NCAA A - NCAA "A" Standard
NCAA B - NCAA "B" Standard
* -- School Record
200 Medley Relay
3. Risley, Scherer, Kaaki, Alden 1:26.65 (32), NCAA B
800 Freestyle Relay
5. Alden, Ryan, Bushman, Cochrane 6:28.11* (28), NCAA B