Jan. 11, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Opening the 2013 season, the No. 20 Penn State men's swimming and diving team will head to Arkansas Saturday, Jan. 12 to take on Missouri State. While the women's squad will compete in a tri-meet against the Razorbacks and Missouri State, the Nittany Lion men (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) will face the Bears in an 11 a.m. dual.
Returning to regular season competition after a month-long break of winter training, the Lions hope to perpetuate the momentum generated at the 2012 Georgia Fall Invitational and the non-scored meet against No. 22 North Carolina. Penn State left UGA with 14 NCAA B Cut performances, including six from junior Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and seven from freshman Shane Ryan (Havertown, Pa.), before taking four of six events against the Tar Heels in early January.
Grier, who has broken two Penn State school records and one McCoy Natatorium pool record this season, and Ryan, two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, hold the top times in several events for the Lions, along with medley relay teammates Nate Savoy (Reading) and James Wilson (Nottingham, Pa.). Making up the lead freestyle relay squad, junior John Hauser (Pottstown, Pa.), leader in the 200 free, and junior Shane Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) join Grier and Ryan. Junior Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.), sophomore Nick Ankosko (East Brunswick, N.J.) and junior Chris Cipolla (South River, N.J.) have continued to push the pace for Penn State, as well, and are on track to best several NCAA standards.
The Penn State divers return to dual-meet action after competing in the Tennessee Collegiate Diving Invite last weekend, with senior Alex Marchinski (Shillington, Pa.) leading the pack. Marchinski recorded the highest scores for the Lions on both the one- and three-meter boards, while sophomore T.J. Schenkel (Richboro, Pa.) competed in all three events, recording a season-best score of 212.60 on the platform dive.
The Bears (4-1, 2-0 MAC) have won four straight duals, topping conference opponents Evansville and Southern Illinois, along with Dury and Air Force. The men's squad is also coming off of a third-place showing at the UIW Invitational and fourth-place finish at the Purdue Invitational. Boasting several MAC Swimmers of the Week, Missouri State is led by sophomore Vitalii Baryshok, sophomore Paul Le, freshman Isaac Springer and sophomore Matthew Wilson. Highlighting the young standouts, Olympian Uvis Kalnins has recorded a successful rookie season after returning from the 2012 London Olympics as a member of Team Latvia.
Live Results are available here. Below is a complete list of the order of events.
Order of events
200 Medley Relay
1000 Freestyle
200 Freestyle
100 Backstroke
100 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
200 Breaststroke
500 Freestyle
100 Butterfly
3-Meter Diving
400 IM (Women) / 200 IM (Men)
400 Freestyle Relay