Dec. 3, 2011
Columbus, Ohio - The Penn State men's swimming & diving team made ground on second-place Purdue at the OSU Invitational on Saturday as the Nittany Lions recorded eight NCAA "B" cut times. Ohio State leads its own event, while Purdue (484.5 points) sits in second ahead of Penn State (472) and Michigan State (305).
The 200 medley relay team of Nate Savoy (Reading, Pa.), Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.), Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) combined for a season-best time of 1:27.65 en route to second place behind Ohio State (1:26.80). The race was highlighted by Grier's blistering butterfly leg of 20.88, which closed the gap to .45 behind the Buckeye squad that set a new meet record.
Penn State continued its strong evening outing by placing three in the 400 IM A Final. The trio of Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.), Savoy and Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) placed third, fifth and eighth, respectively. Marino turned in an NCAA "B" cut time of 3:53.46 after placing first in the preliminaries (3:52.51).
Savoy notched a "B" time, 3:54.08, bettering his prelim effort by nearly a second (3:55.37), registering a new PR in the process. Savoy's swim was made him the sixth-fastest 400 IM swimmer in PSU history. Salig's time of 3:56.29 in the preliminaries checks him in as the 10th fastest 400 IM swimmer at Penn State.
Grier represented PSU in the 100 butterfly A Final as he tied for fourth at 48.23. Grier qualified third with a swim of 48.16 in the preliminaries. Grier, who notched the second-fastest 100 fly swim at PSU in 2011, is in search of the all-time Penn State 100 fly record, sitting .42 behind Eugene Botes's 2002 time of 47.01.
Penn State's solid Saturday night continued into the 100 breaststroke as two Nittany Lions competed in the A Final. Scherer, PSU's all-time record holder in the event, tied for second (54.90) in the final, while Alden came in fourth in a time of 55.33. Both showings earned the duo NCAA "B" times.
Savoy returned to the pool in the 100 backstroke in the A Final to match his preliminary time of 48.56 precisely en route to sixth place, earning him his second NCAA "B" cut of the day. The two swims place Savoy sixth on the all-time PSU charts in the event.
The Nittany Lions concluded the night in the 800 freestyle relay, swum for the first time in 2011-12. Penn State finished sixth in a time of 6:41.21, the eighth and final NCAA "B" performance of the night. Salig led out in 1:40, while Alden, Marino and Seth Wensel (Christiansburg, Va.) rounded out the quartet.
In the afternoon three-meter diving event, both Alex Marchinski (Shillington, Pa.) and Jordan Harris (Philipsburg, Pa.) made the evening's finals. Harris scored 305.15 in the prelims in fifth place, but slipped to eighth in the finals. Marchinski qualified seventh with a score of 278.80 and maintained the placing with an improved score of 283.45.
Penn State returns to the pool on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. for the final day of the OSU Invitational at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The finals will take place at 3 p.m. Live results are available on GoPSUSports.com with live updates on Twitter at @PSUCoachMahaney.