Feb. 20, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men will take their turn at the Big Ten Swimming & Diving Championships beginning with a pair of relays Wednesday. The four-day meet will be hosted by Minnesota in the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
SCHEDULE
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday with the timed finals of the 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay. Preliminary heats will begin at noon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the finals scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. each night.
Wednesday, Feb. 21 - RELAYS at 7:30 p.m.
200 Medley Relay
800 Freestyle Relay
Thursday, Feb. 22 - PRELIMS at Noon
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving - Trials (1 p.m.)
1-Meter Diving - Consolation Final
Thursday, Feb. 22 - FINALS at 7:30 p.m.
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving
400 Medley Relay
Friday, Feb. 23 - PRELIMS at Noon
100 Butterfly
400 Individual Medley
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
3-Meter Diving - Trials (1 p.m.)
3-Meter Diving - Consolation Final
Friday, Feb. 23 - FINALS at 7:30 p.m.
100 Butterfly
400 Individual Medley
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
3-Meter Diving
200 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, Feb. 24 - PRELIMS at Noon
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
Platform Diving - Trials (1 p.m.)
Platform Diving - Consolation Final
1,650 Freestyle (Approx. 4:15 p.m.)
Saturday, Feb. 24 - FINALS at 7:30 p.m.
1,650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
Platform Diving
400 Freestyle Relay
COVERAGE
The four-day meet is scheduled to commence with relay finals Wednesday at 6:30, and continue Friday through Saturday with preliminaries starting at 11 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m. All sessions will be streamed live via BTN Plus on BTN2Go. Complimentary access to BTN2Go is available to viewers connected to the internet network of a Big Ten university. Fans elsewhere can sign up for the pay-per-view webcasts.
THE MEET
The Nittany Lions will face some of the toughest competition in the country as four conference teams enter the event as members of the TYR/CSCAA Top 25. Indiana leads the conference ranking fourth and is followed by No. 8 Michigan, No. 18 Ohio State and No. 22 Minnesota.
Penn State is looking to improve on a seventh-place finish last season. Indiana won last year's meet and was followed by Michigan and Ohio State.
B1G CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
In all PSU has recorded five top-five finishes all stretching from 1998-2002. The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten Championship in 1999.
FREESTYLE
A mix of veterans and newcomers will look to lead the Nittany Lions in the freestyle events. Senior captain Ryan O'Neill and freshman Gabe Castano lead the team in the short frees, with O'Neill owning an NCAA B-cut in the 200 free of 1:37.64 to rank in the Big Ten's Top 24 for the year. Not far behind is freshman Nathan Schiffmann with a B-cut of 1:37.77, who is also one of the team's leading threats in the distance events. Schiffmann's season-best of 4:24.01 in the 500 free is a B-cut that ranks ninth in the conference. Schiffmann (15:36.34) and senior captain Robbie Dickson (15:40.00) both rank in the Top 24 in the conference in the mile.
BACKSTROKE
Sophomore Liam Veregin ranks inside the Top 20 for both the 100 (48.48) and 200 (1:47.17) backstrokes and is Penn State's leading candidate to score in the events.
BREASTSTROKE
Kaelan Freund leads the Lions in both breaststroke events entering the meet. His bests of 53.26 in the 100 and 1:56.96 in the 200 rank both rank in the Top 8, highlighted by a fourth-place ranking in the 100. Junior Gunther Cassell is also a factor in the breast, as he holds Penn State's record in the 200 of 1:56.28, set at last year's Big Tens.
BUTTERFLY
Junior Sterg Dikos leads Penn State in the fly, owning the team's best time in the 100 (49.56) and sharing the lead in the 200 with sophomore Matthew DiNunzio (1:48.62). Their 200 time ranks 22nd in the conference entering the week.
INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
Freund also leads the 200 IM with a season-best and NCAA B-cut of 1:47.52 that ranks 13th in the Big Ten. Freshman Hayden Harlow leads in the 400 IM with a season-best time of 1:59.93.
DIVING
Penn State's quarter of Hector Garcia Boissier, Jack Crow, Connor Scanlon and freshman Bryce Hoch have all qualified for the NCAA Zone Regionals and will look to impact the scoring at Big Tens. Garcia led Penn State at last year's championships, placing fourth in the 3-meter and ninth in the 1-meter before going on to honorable mention All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.