Dec. 5, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. -- The Penn State men's swimming team rounded out its time at the Georgia Invitational in fifth place seeing three more NCAA "B" performances on Sunday. Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.), Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) and the 400 freestyle relay squad each recorded "B" cuts.
Salig had the most exciting showing for the Nittany Lions on Sunday, qualifying fourth overall in the 200 butterfly out of the prelims with a personal best time of 1:47.59. In the A Final, Salig bettered his fourth-place seed, touching the wall in 1:46.56 for third place, the best individual performance of the day for Penn State. Joining Salig in the top final was Luke Bushman (Green Bay, Wis.) who qualified eighth and finished likewise in the final. The sophomore swam a 1:48.71 in the prelims.
Alden placed in another A Final as he finished fourth in the 100 freestyle preliminary (44.20). In the final, Alden swam slightly above his prelim time en route to a sixth-place showing in a time of 44.24. The junior freestyle specialist would cap the day in the 400 free relay leading off the four-man squad with a 44.50 opening leg before Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.), James Wilson (Nottingham, Pa.) and John Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) took the Nittany Lions home in a season-best time of 3:00.59, besting the relay's seed time by over six seconds.
Other A Final performances included Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.) and Jeff Gomez (Morristown, N.J.) in the 200 breaststroke and 200 backstroke, respectively. Scherer placed sixth in the A Final of the 200 breast with a time of 2:00.68, a season best. Gomez topped his prelim time (1:50.60) and place (eighth) with a 1:48.35, seventh-place showing.
The Nittany Lions were fifth of five full men's teams at the Georgia Invite that saw national power Auburn win the event followed by Georgia, Minnesota and Virginia. Penn State will be off from competition for the remainder of the calendar year before returning to action with a dual meet against North Carolina in Naples, Fla. in January.
--NITTANY LIONS--