Feb. 24, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State swimming & diving saw another record fall during as Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) lowered his record in the 200 IM to lead the Nittany Lions during the Big Ten Championships' Day Two preliminaries.
The Nittany Lions saw two of their own advance to Thursday night's final with terrific swims led by Marino. The junior IM specialist shattered his own Penn State record with a swim of 1:44.90, the 3rd-fastest in the preliminaries putting him in the "A" Final this evening. The time was good enough for an NCAA "B" cut and was less than a second from an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Marino's previous record was 1:46.60, which he sat last year.
Teammate Graham Risley (Riverside, Ill.) posted a personal-best time of 1:47.82 in impressive fashion. The NCAA "B" swim came out of the 1st heat of the event because Risley was unseeded prior to Thursday's action. Risley will compete in the "B" Final tonight. The backstroke specialist missed much of the 2010 portion of the season before returning during the winter break.
Junior Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) recorded a season-best time of 20.03 in the 50 freestyle, which landed him in the "B" Final tonight. Alden was seeded 20.30 coming into Thursday and finished 12th in the preliminaries.
Penn State's preliminaries kicked off with the 500 freestyle event as two Nittany Lions swam identical personal-best times of 4:31.23. Sophomore Ben Hengels (Glenview, Ill.) swam in the opening heat of the event, while senior Jack Zierenberg (Allison Park, Pa.) matched Hengels' time in the 4th heat. Two other PSU swimmers also competed in the 500 free as senior Josh Wakeley (Egg Harbor, N.J.) touched the wall in 4:32.06 and freshman John Silvers (Bradenton, Fla.) swam 4:32.46, both season bests on the year for the duo.
Penn State will return to the pool tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET. A full recap of the day's events will be included along with diving results from the 1-meter springboard.
For complete recaps following each day's action, visit GoPSUsports.com.
For complete coverage of all the Nittany Lion swimming & diving this season, visit GoPSUsports.com.
--NITTANY LIONS--