Oct. 23, 2010
Complete Results | Photo Gallery
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State Nittany Lions won eight events on Saturday, but fell 181.5-118.5 to Virginia Tech at McCoy Natatorium. Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) and Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.) were a part of five combined victories to lead PSU.
The Nittany Lions opened strong with a victory in the 200 medley relay, finishing in a time of 1:31.37. Graham Risley (Riverside, Ill.) led off with a 23.61 split in the backstroke before Scherer, Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and Alden brought home the victory, winning by nearly seven-tenths of a second.
Alden continued his winning ways in the 50 freestyle touching the wall in 20.90, 0.16 ahead of VT's Karl Botha. Alden's superb day continued in the 100 free, coming back in the final 50 yards, closing with a 23.40 split to win the event in a time of 46.04.
The most exciting race of the day came when Jeff Gomez (Morristown, N.J.) finished with the fastest 50 of the race (27.65) to overcome a two-second deficit and win in a time of 1:50.60, beating VT's Tom Sheranek by just 0.01 as McCoy erupted in cheers.
Scherer won his second event of the day when he took top honors in the 100 breaststroke, winning in a time of 57.06. His three-win day was rounded out with a first-place showing in the 200 breast, touching the wall in 2:04.96, an impressive 3.57 seconds ahead of the field. Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) won the 200 butterfly (1:50.27) and Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) took the 200 IM title with a 1:52.87 to cap off the PSU wins.
The Nittany Lions will take an extended lay off from competition before a two-day tri-meet at Virginia and Indiana on Nov. 19-20.
--NITTANY LIONS--