Dec. 5, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. - Guided by eight NCAA `B' cuts, the Penn State women's swimming & diving team wrapped up the Georgia Invitational with another strong performance on Sunday afternoon as the Nittany Lions finished fourth at the prestigious event hosted by the Bulldogs at the Gabrielsen Natatorium.
Georgia captured the title in the squad's home event as the team compiled 1,115 points. Auburn came in second with 769.5, while Virginia was third with 655.5. Penn State followed with 538 points, while Kansas (371), Harvard (261), and Minnesota (158) rounded out the field.
Alexandra Young provided the highlight of the meet for the Nittany Lions as the senior speedster captured the title in the 200-butterfly. Her time of 1:57.38 easily set the standard and eclipsed the NCAA `B' cut by over three seconds. Fellow Lion Chelsea Weedman also pieced together an outstanding effort as she placed fourth in the event with a time of 1:58.97, which also topped the provisional standard.
Following a blistering pace in the preliminaries of the 200-backstroke, Amy Modglin settled into fifth-place in the finals of the discipline with a time of 1:55.93. Monika Mialka also had a strong performance in the event as she placed eighth with a 1:58.78 clocking. Both times met the NCAA `B' standard.
Merritt Krawczyk recorded a top-five finish for Penn State as well as she placed fourth in the 200-breaststroke. During the event, she touched the wall in 2:14.93, which beat the NCAA `B' cut. Teammate Alexa Hetzel also performed well as she finished eighth in 2:17.06.
Sam Palser joined in the fun as well with a sixth-place showing in the 100-freestyle. During the event, she topped the provisional qualifying time for the NCAA meet after clocking in at 49.74. During the prelims, she also crushed the school-record with a time of 49.42. That pace topped the previous mark of 49.70 set by Lindsey DeForrest in 2009.
In the final event of the day, the Nittany Lions had two 400-freestyle relay teams place in the top-eight with a pair of NCAA `B' standard times. The foursome of Palser, Mialka, Erin Thomas, and Paige Whitmire placed fourth in 3:20.19. Just three places behind them, the team of Young, Katie Pulos, Kristen Rodman, and Hailey Campbell finished the course in 3:22.71.
In other events, Claire Singley was the top Nittany Lion in the 1,650-freestyle after placing ninth in 16:43.25.
Overall, Penn State eclipsed 20 NCAA `B' standards during the three-day event on the way to its fourth-place showing.
The Nittany Lions will take the next month off before returning to the pool in the New Year. Following the winter break, the PSU divers will head to Indianapolis for a competition against Wyoming and Arkansas on January 2-4. The swimmers will trek to Naples, Florida for a meet with North Carolina on January 4.