Jan. 29, 2016
| NAVY/COLUMBIA | |
Lejeune Hall | Annapolis, Md. | |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's swimming and diving team earned a split in a tri-meet at No. 24 Navy, defeating Columbia 154-123, but falling to the host Midshipmen, 161-131, Friday afternoon in Lejeune Hall.
Penn State started the meet strong, placing second in the 200 medley relay and earning race wins in the next two events and saw continued success in diving, but Navy was able to rally back in the remaining races.
"I think it was a productive trip; it was a big test," said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy. "The guys are starting to come around. We obviously wanted to be better than we were two weeks ago, so we got some good racing in. It was good that we were able to come down and swim well. It is always nice to race against the Midshipmen.
Tomer Zamir (Gesher Haziv, Israel), Gunther Cassell (Long Island, N.Y.), Matt Grillo (Montreal, Quebec), and Zach Kantz (Mount Bethel, Pa.) placed second in the 200 medley relay (1:29.76), and Matt Stasiunas (Avondale, Pa.) followed with a victory in the 1000 freestyle in a season-best 9:17.99 before Joao Cervone (Sao Paulo, Brazil) also topped the podium in the very next race, finishing the 200 free in 1:39.11.
It was just the second collegiate meet for Cervone, who joined the team at the start of the semester and is still adjusting to swimming distances measured in yards as opposed to meters.
"It was fun to watch," said Murphy "I am real happy for him and I'm pumped that he was able to win a race."
Stasiunas and Cervone led Penn State in the 500 free as well, as Stasiunas was second in 4:30.24, just .09 seconds shy of first place, and Cervone followed in third in 4:32.13.
Hector Garcia (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) won the 1-meter dive with a score of 375.25, and was followed by Connor Scanlon (Laurel, Md.) in second at 306.25 and Jack Crow (Bethesda, Md.) in fourth at 293.10. Crow enjoyed a career-day in the 3-meter, placing second with a score of 358.80.
Other top swimming performances included runner-up finishes for Zamir in the 100 backstroke (49.98,), Grillo in the 50 free (20.86) and Nathaniel Bledsoe (Carmel, Ind.) in the 200 backstroke (1:51.96). Third-place finishes included Cassell in the 100 breaststroke (57.47) and 200 breast (2:04.25) and Jonathan Seiferth ( Allison Park, Pa.) in the 200 butterfly (1:52.04).
David Gross (Perryville, Md.) and Bledsoe helped close out Columbia by finishing 1-2 over the Lions in the 200 IM in 1:55.35 and 1:55.81, respectively, and the Nittany Lions were also able to have two relay teams place ahead of Columbia in the 400 freestyle relay to close out the meet.
Stasiunas, Cervone, Ryan O'Neil (Howell, N.J.) and Zach Kantz ( Mount Bethel, Pa). led the `A' team in 3:02.54.
Both the men's and women's teams will be in action Saturday, Feb. 6 when Penn State hosts Villanova for its Senior Day meet in McCoy Natatorium starting at 1 p.m.
"I think the next race will be interesting," said Murphy. "It's always an emotional day for the seniors, and so it takes on a little different tone there. I expect we'll really be trying to put the final touches on our races before the Big Ten Championships."