Feb. 25, 2016

Results

WEST LAFAYTETTE, Ind. ââ'¬" Hector Garcia Boissier (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) led Penn State on the second day of competition at the Big Ten Men's Swimming & Diving Championships Thursday evening, while several Nittany Lions swam season best times in Boilermaker Aquatic Center. The Lions rank ninth with 187.5 points after the second of four days of competition.

"We had some good swims," said head coach Tim Murphy. "They did a good job racing tonight, and almost everybody that raced picked up a couple of spots from where they were seeded."

Garcia placed seventh in the 1-meter dive to lead the diving group with a score of 321.30 after reaching the top final with a preliminary score of 356.05.

"Hector did a great job in his first Big Tens," said Murphy. "It was real nice for the divers. They're real excited about the 3-meter."

Matt Stasiunas (Avondale, Pa.) placed 13th in the 500 freestyle in 4:25.86 after swimming a season-best and NCAA B-cut time of 4:24.70 in the preliminaries. Freshman Joao Cervone (Sao Paulo, Brazil) swam the team's fastest time in the event of the season, touching in 4:24.43 in the C-final to place 19th.

Matt Grillo (Montreal, Quebec) placed 14th in the 50 free in 20.07 seconds. He swam a personal best and B-cut time of 19.94 in the preliminaries.

"Grillo's 50 in the morning was real nice to see," said Murphy. "Both his swims were lifetime bests. His swim this morning was his first time under 20 seconds for him so that a lot of fun to watch. I'm real proud of him."

Tim Maurer (Hershey, Pa.) saw a dramatic improvement in the 200 IM of over four seconds from his season best, winning the C-final with a personal best and NCAA B-cut time of 1:46.31.

"Tim Maurer had a really nice swim in the 200 IM tonight," said Murphy. "That was a time he was hoping to achieve, so that was really nice."

No. 5 Michigan continues to lead the meet with 496 points.

"The guys are settling in now," said Murphy. "Tomorrow is obviously a big day for us. Scoring points is hard to come by, so we need to do what we did tonight, get people in and then move up."

On the opening night Wednesday the Nittany Lions saw their best performance in the 800 freestyle relay as the team of Stasiunas, Ryan O'Neill (Howell, Pa.), Cervone, and Bob Bantley (Maple Glen, Pa.) finished in an NCAA B-cut time of 6:24.59 to place fifth, making the quarter the second fastest in Penn State history.

The Lions opened the night with the 200 medley relay, with the team of Tomer Zamir (Gesher Haziv, Israel), Andrew Schuehler (Camden, N.J.), Grillo and Bantley in a season-best 1:27.53.

The meet continues Friday with morning preliminaries starting at 11 a.m. and evening finals at 6:30 p.m.

Championships Schedule
FRIDAY, FEB. 26
Day Three Prelims: 11 a.m.
400-yard IM
100-yard Butterfly
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
3M Diving (Prelims & Consolation Finals, 1 p.m.)

Day Three Finals: 6:30 p.m.
200-yard Freestyle Relay
400-yard IM
100-yard Butterfly
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
3M Diving

SATURDAY, FEB. 27
Day Four Prelims: 11 a.m.
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (Prelims & Consolation Finals, 1 p.m.)
1,650-yard Freestyle

Day Four Finals: 6:30 p.m.
1,650-yard Freestyle
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving
400-yard Freestyle Relay

ALL TIMES ET

Television Coverage
BTN will air tape-delayed coverage of the Big Ten Men's Swimming & Diving Championships at 7 PM ET on Monday, Feb. 29.

Live Coverage
Wednesday evening: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Thursday morning: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Thursday evening: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Friday morning: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Friday evening: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Saturday morning: BTN Plus on BTN2Go
Saturday evening: BTN, Feb. 29, 2016