Feb. 16, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's swimming and diving teams were in action at day two of the Big Ten Championships on Thursday. The Nittany Lions currently sit in fifth place with 118.5 team points. Penn State had finals qualifiers in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle. The Lions went on to earn points in both of those events.
Penn State had a strong day in the 200 IM, as it had three swimmers qualify for the finals. Junior Merritt Krawczyk (Kingwood, Texas) earned the second best qualifying time in the preliminaries. She earned a `B' standard time of 1:57.79. Sophomore Chelsea Weedman (Poway, Calif.) also cracked the top five qualifying times, as she earned a time of 1:58.51, which is also a `B' standard. Sophomore Gabi Shishkoff(Franklin, Mass.) was Penn State's third qualifier, earning a mark of 2:02.48.
In the finals of the 200 IM, Krawczyk earned a second place finish, with a time of 1:57.77. Weedman also earned 13 points for the Nittany Lions with her sixth place finish.
Later on, Penn State had another solid outing over in the 50 freestyle preliminaries. Junior Paige Whitmire (Lederach, Pa.) led the way in the prelims, earning a time of 22.33 seconds, which was second best in the field. Senior Sam Palser (Chester Springs, Pa.) finished right behind her with the third best time of 22.43 seconds. Senior Katie Pulos (Rosemont, Pa.) was PSU's third qualifier at 22.90 seconds. At 23.17 seconds, senior Erin Thomas(Bangor, Maine) was Penn State's fourth qualifier.
Palser came back and did it again in the finals, earning second place with a time of 22.41 seconds. Whitmire earned 15 points for PSU, clocking in at 22.67 seconds. Pulos earned points as well, finishing at 23.12 seconds.
Check back to GoPSUsports.com for continued updates throughout the Big Ten Championships.