Feb. 23, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State men's swimming & diving completed preliminaries on Thursday in three events highlighted by Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Nate Savoy (Reading, Pa.) in the 200 IM. The Nittany Lion duo earned PSU's lone evening A Final berths.
Marino (1:44.97), Penn State's all-time record holder in the 200 and 400 IM events, nearly eclipsed his record-breaking time from last year (1:44.62), to finish second behind Michigan's Kyle Whitaker. The sophomore Wolverine swam 1:44.59 to take top honors heading into tonight's finals.
Savoy, competing in his first Big Ten Championships, finished sixth in a lifetime-best time of 1:46.46, the second fastest time in Penn State history. Savoy knocked two seconds off his season best time of 1:48.98 and jumped over Joe Peresan's 2001 mark of 1:47.32.
Penn State placed another swimmer in a scoring heat as Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) finished Thursday afternoon in 15th with a time of 1:47.91, a new personal record, besting the 1:51.16 swam a year ago in the same meet. Salig's was below the NCAA "B" cut as well.
Sophomore Shane Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) finished in a three-way tie for 10th in the 50 freestyle with a new personal record of 19.96. His swim was the seventh fastest in PSU history and he is the lone Nittany Lion competing for points in that event tonight.
Freshman distance specialist Nick Ankosko (East Brunswick, N.J.) competed in the 500 freestyle, notching an NCAA "B" cut in 4:23.63, a seven second drop from earlier in the season. Ankosko was just four-tenths of a second away from being in the B Final tonight. Nevertheless, Ankosko posted the second quickest time in Penn State program history and he now sits four second behind Martin Schierhorn (4:19.30, 2001).
The Nittany Lions continue competition this afternoon with the 1-meter diving competition as well as the finals of the individual events swum this morning. Capping off the second day of the Big Ten Championships will be the 400 Medley Relay where Penn State is seeded third.
--NITTANY LIONS--