Dec. 2, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Penn State men's swimming & diving team completed the first day at the OSU Invitational with the Nittany Lions in third place (201 points) out of four full teams. The 400 medley relay turned in the best performance of the day with a second-place, NCAA "B" qualifying time of 3:12.56 to cap Friday's events.
The 400 medley relay team of Nate Savoy (Reading, Pa.), Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.), Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) bested its fastest time of the season by nearly six seconds with a time of 3:12.56. The Nittany Lions slipped by the fastest meet time posted in 2007, but were a little over two seconds behind Ohio State's winning foursome.
Penn State featured two individuals in the A Final of the 200 IM. Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) touched the wall in third with an NCAA "B" time of 1:47.49, while Savoy was sixth in 1:48.98. Both men achieved "B" cuts in the preliminaries for the Nittany Lions.
Earlier in the evening, the 200 freestyle relay of Shane Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.), Alden, Marino and Grier tallied fourth place with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:21.38, narrowing beaten out for third place by .04.
Alden and Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) were the only other Nittany Lion individuals to reach an A Final on Friday night. Alden made the 50 free final with a 20.71 preliminary swim before finishing seventh in 20.62. Salig qualified eighth in the 500 freestyle and finished in the same position, clocking a time of 4:30.78 for his efforts.
In the one-meter springboard diving competition, Alex Marchinski (Shillington, Pa.) and Jordan Harris (Philipsburg, Pa.) both made the evening's finals. Marchinski finished fourth with a score of 270.15 after qualifying third (283.55), while Harris posted scores of 260.70 and 260.30 in the prelims and finals, respectively, en route to sixth place.
Penn State returns to the pool on Saturday morning for the second of the three-day OSU Invitational at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Live results are available on GoPSUSports.com with live updates on Twitter at @PSUCoachMahaney.
--NITTANY LIONS--