Dec. 2, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State swimming and diving teams completed the first portion of competition on Friday at the Ohio State Invitational. The finals for today's preliminary events will take place at 6 p.m. this evening.
Action on the day began in the 500 freestyle preliminaries. Leading the way for the Nittany Lions in the event was freshman Caitlyn Karr (Reading, Pa.). Karr posted a time of 4:55.12 to qualify for the finals. Her time smashed her personal record, which was 5:06.20 previously on Nov. 19 against Indiana and Virginia. Sophomore Claire Singley (Southlake, Texas) finished right behind Karr with a tie of 4:55.49 to also qualify. She also earned a season-best in that event. Freshman Megan Siverling (Havertown, Pa.) and senior Rose Snyder (Harmony, Pa.) posted times of 4:58.89 and 4:59.18 respectively to also qualify for finals.
Penn State had a really strong showing over in the 200 IM, earning two finishers in the top three of the preliminaries. Sophomore Chelsea Weedman (Poway, Calif.) earned a time of 2:00.69, a "b" standard to advance to the finals. Junior Merritt Krawczyk (Kingwood, Texas) finished right behind Weedman, posting a finish of 2:00.76, which is another "b" standard. Junior Amy Modglin (Fort Myers, Fla.), sophomore Mackenzie Powers (Sycamore, Ill.), sophomore Gabi Shishkoff (Franklin, Mass.) and senior Alexa Hetzel (Metuchen, N.J.) all qualified for the finals.
In the 50 freestyle, the Nittany Lions had five swimmers that qualified for the finals. Senior Sam Palser (Chester Springs, Pa.) and junior Paige Whitmire (Lederach, Pa.) each earned "b" standard times, clocking in at 22.77 and 22.98 seconds respectively. Senior Kristen Rodman (Lansdale, Pa.), senior Erin Thomas (Bangor, Maine) and freshman Katelyn Miller (Hershey, Pa.) also qualified for the finals. In the night session, Penn State's 200 freestyle relay team of Whitmire, Thomas, Rodman and Palser placed second scoring a time of 1:30.62. With that finish, the quad earned Penn State 34 team points.
In the 500 freestyle finals, Singley was Penn State's top finisher, as she posted a time of 4:53.08. That beat her time earlier in the day by about two seconds. Karr came in at 16th place, earning a final time of 4:58.95.
In the 200 IM finals, Krawczyk earned a "b" standard time of 1:59.70 to earn a solid second place finish in the event. Weedman also had a great finish and a "b" standard time with a mark of 2:00.14. Modglin rounded out the top Penn State finishers as she took seventh place at 2:02.74.
The Nittany Lions continued a great evening over in the 50 freestyle finals. Palser and Whitmire finished in second and third respectively, earning times of 22.8 and 22.86 seconds, both of which were "b" standards.
Check back at GoPSUSports.com for complete updates throughout the weekend. For complete coverage of all the Nittany Lion swimming & diving this season, visit GoPSUsports.com.