Jan. 13, 2018
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ââ'¬" A win in the 500 freestyle by freshman Camryn Barry (Westlake Village, Calif.) highlighted the Penn State swimming & diving teams' efforts against North Carolina and Navy in a semester-opening double dual meet Saturday in the Tar Heels' Koury Natatorium.
On the women's side, Penn State defeated Navy 181-118, but No. 21 North Carolina prevailed over the Nittany Lions, 200-91. On the men's side, North Carolina defeated Penn State 190-105 and Navy prevailed 189-111.
Barry took gold in the 500 free in 4:53.63 to lead the Nittany Lion women, and she also placed fourth in the 200 free (1:50.39). Senior Niki Price (Manchester, Pa.) also had a strong day with a pair of runner up finishes in the 200 backstroke (2:01.28) and 100 fly (56.53), while also besting all of the Navy swimmers in the 100 back (56.67), placing fourth overall. Classmate Tommie Dillione (Newtown, Pa.) also earned a runner-up placing in the 200 freestyle (1:49.82).
Additional top performances on the women's side included a pair of third-place finishes for freshman Carly Hart (Canton, Ohio in the breaststroke events, besting Navy in both. She finished the 100 in 1:03.88, while touching the wall in 2:19.41 in the 200. The Nittany Lions also enjoyed success over Navy in the 1000 free with third (10:16.44) and fourth (10:17.72) place finishes by freshman Stephanie Szekely and sophomore Hannah Blaser, respectively, and in the 50 free with third (23.61) and fifth (23.75) place finishes by junior Katrina Kuhn and freshman Ann Tolan.
Barry, Dillione, Kuhn and Price teamed up for the 400 freestyle relay to conclude the meet and posted the second fastest time (3:28.32).
For the Penn State men, freshman Jacob Deckman (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) was five-hundreths of a second shy of a first-place effort in the 200 butterfly, placing second in a personal-best 1:50.99 behind UNC's Thomas Bilden (1:50.94). Sophomore Matthew DiNunzio (Murrysville, Pa.) trailed Deckman in third (1:51.61). Deckman and classmate Eben Krigger (Pittsburgh, Pa.) also bested Navy in the 200 breast, placing third (4:36.27) and fourth (4:37.55), respectively.
Sophomore Liam Veregin (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) was also a big contributor, placing second in the 200 back (1:49.59) and third in the 100 back (49.68). Additionally, freshman Gabe Castano (Allentown, Pa.) was second in the 50 free (20.63) and junior Robbie Dickson (Greenwich, N.J.) was third in the 1000 free (9:30.17).
On the boards, senior Connor Scanlon (Laurel, Md.) placed third (308.50 points) in the 1-meter to best the UNC divers, while junior Jack Crow (Bethesda, Md.) placed second in the 3-meter (332.30) to best the Navy divers.
Next, Penn State will host a diving invitational Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 28-29 and the full team will return to competition Friday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. for Senior Day when it hosts Villanova.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.