ANN ARBOR, Mich. - No. 25 Penn State closed the 2016 Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday on a high note, setting a school record in the meet's final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Overall, the Nittany Lions placed seventh in the four-day meet in Canham Natatorium.

The All-Big Ten second team quartet of Alyson Ackman (Montreal, Quebec), Niki Price (Manchester, Pa.), Haley Sinatro (West Hartford, Conn,) and Kaitlin Jones (Midlothian, Va.) earned silver in the race, finishing in 3:15.88, breaking a school standard of 3:16.12 that had stood since 2012. It was the Nittany Lions top race of the meet.

"I told the team afterwards, 'we weren't supposed to beat at least three of those teams in that relay going in,'" said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy. "The girls just flat out outworked the other teams and ended with a bang. The energy going through the team, through me quite frankly, was just awesome."

Jones was also honored as Penn State's Big Ten Sportsmanship award recipient.

"I think we have a lot to be proud of," said head coach Tim Murphy. "We have some good momentum now going into NCAA's and we'll go to the Last Chance Meet and get a shot for a couple more girls to make cuts, which we think we can. I couldn't have asked more from them to make a statement about who we are, not only to ourselves, but to every other team on that deck.

"(In the relay) we were second only to (Big Ten Champion) Michigan, and that's a real nice way to end the meet, so I appreciate their efforts, their energy, their attitudes when they were swimming well and when they were struggling. They stayed in the game, and stuff like that at the end of the meet just doesn't happen. You have to stay in it, you have to want it, and you have to be willing to do battle. If that's - and think it is - a representation of who we are as a team, I'll take that walking out of this meet every time."

It was one of three top five finishes for the Nittany Lions on the day. Ackman placed fifth in the 100 free in 48.67 seconds, with Jones placing in 14th in 49.67 in the same event. Melissa Rodriguez added a fourth place finish in the 200 breast, touching in 2:09.43. Katie Rowe (Glenville, N.Y) also placed in an A-final, finishing sixth in the 300 butterfly in 1:58.27.

Price also had a strong individual finish, placing 11th in the 200 backstroke in 1:57.81. Katelyn Sowinski (Severna Park, Md.) and Casey Francis (East Meadow, N.Y.) placed back-to-back in 12th (16:19.56) and 13th (16:26.05), respectively.

Michigan claimed the 2016 Big Ten Women's Swimming & Diving Championship. Michigan compiled 1,361 total points throughout the four-day event. Indiana finished second after collecting 1,207.5 points and Minnesota was third with 927.5 points. Ohio State finished fourth with 859 points, while Purdue recorded 766.5 points to finish fifth.

The Wolverines took home titles in the 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard individual medley, 400-yard medley relay, 400-yard freestyle relay and 800-yard freestyle relay.

Michigan's Siobhan Haughey was named Swimmer of the Championships, while Minnesota's Yu Zhou was tabbed Diver of the Championships. Indiana's Lilly King claimed Freshman of the Year honors.

On Friday, Ackman opened the evening finals leading off a third place effort in the 400 medley relay. She teamed with Rodriguez, Rowe and Price to finish in a season-best 3:35.18. She later posted a season-best of 1:45.16 in the 200 free to place fourth, while Jones won the B-final in 1:46.40.

"We finished on a real good note," said Murphy. "The 400 medley relay was very good, especially Katie Rowe's split and Niki Price's split. We really kind of picked up some momentum on Friday night, just the way they went about it, it was a lot of fun. So that kind of gave us - and I pointed it out to them - if you're going to take something into the last day, take what (Casey) Fazio did in the bonus heat, take what (Kaitlin) Jonesy did in the consolation heat. Just race. Everybody that raced Friday night raced really, really tough. It was just nice to see."

Rodriguez also reached an A-final, placing seventh in the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.76. Sinatro placed 13th in the same event in 1:01.72.

"We struggled a little bit on Friday morning," said Murphy. "We had some real good swims. We were hoping to put a few more in scoring position, but we came back that night and had some real nice swims."

The Lions had a trio in the 400 individual medley B-final, led by Rowe in 10th in 4:12.29. Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo (Mexico City, Mexico) was 12th in 4:12.83 and followed consecutively by Francis in 4:13.69.

Thursday individually, Ackman placed fifth in the 50 freestyle, swimming a personal best 22.53 in the preliminaries and touching in 22.59 in the evening finals. She also led off the Nittany Lions' 200 free relay effort, which placed fourth in a season-best 1:29.41 with help from Katie Saloky (Bloomsburg, Pa.), Sinatro and Jones.

Rowe also reached an A-final, ultimately tying for sixth in the 200 IM in a personal best 1:58.06 to rank as the third fastest performer in the event in Penn State history. Price also swam a personal record race to place 10th in 1:59.39, while Gonzalez-Hermosillo swam a personal best 1:59.63 in the prelims and placed 15th in the finals in 2:00.29.

Francis and Sowinski placed 12th and 16th, respectively in the 500 freestyle. The pair tied in the preliminaries, both touching in a season-best 4:42.06 to place ninth. The time was also a personal best for Francis. Francis finished in 4:42.78 in the finals, while Sowinski touched in 4:51.16.

The opening night Wednesday featured a pair of relays. The Nittany Lions had their best performance in the 800 freestyle relay, as the team of Ackman, Megan Wujciak (Livingston, N.J.), Price and Jones touched in fourth place with a season-best and NCAA A-cut time of 7:05.67.

Penn State finished sixth in the 200-medley relay, as Allie Pennetti (Wexford, Pa.), Sinatro, Saloky and Jones combined to finish in a season-best 1:38.97.

The Nittany Lions will next compete at a Last Chance Meet hosted by Ohio State Sunday, looking to improve on their NCAA Championship cuts.