University Park, Pa. – Penn State men's swimming & diving beat West Virginia, 200.5-96.5 Saturday, November 5 at McCoy Natatorium.
Sophomore Victor Baganha and freshman Eduardo Cisternas highlighted the team, claiming a pair of individual victories each in the free and fly events.
"I asked the guys to really approach this, not just because of a home meet, but in the way that we need to approach all of our meets to really get out and race and execute," said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy. "There's a lot of things they did that we can take from this. We needed this. We needed to swim fast, we needed to compete, and we needed to do it the entire meet, and I thought for the most part, we did that. On the flip side of that, I think it also gives us some insight to what they've got to get better at, and if we can make that transition now coming out of this, then we'll continue to get better. It was a good day for the men's team, and that includes our lone diver, our lone wolf diver, [Hayden Elliott], who was just a man was on fire. He's young, he's got his best days ahead of him, so it's very exciting."
Top Swims:
Baganha earned gold and powered his way to the wall with a 19.89 50 free before out-touching his competition by over two seconds in the 100 Fly (47.12).
Cisternas established himself as the distance swimmer to beat, winning both the 1000 (9:17.90) and 500 (4:29.17) Free.
Penn State backstrokers' took the day's events as sophomore Jack Harvey (1:48.73) and senior captain Lachlan Byrne (1:48.91) swam to first and second in the 200 after Byrne won the 100 by nearly a second (48.98).
Senior Daniel Raisanen and freshman Mariano Lazzerini led the breaststroke squad, winning the 100 (55.79) and 200 (2:00.65). The Nittany Lions swept the latter as senior Will Lulek and Raisanen touched in second (2:03.20) and third (2:03.98).
Junior Zach Brewer, sophomore Samuel Folger and Lulek also saw victory in the water, placing first in the 200 Free (1:40.54), the 200 Fly (1:48.77) and the 400 IM (3:55.33).
Relays:
Byrne, Raisanen, Baganha and junior Hurley began the meet with a win in the 200 Medley (1:29.52) and Baganha, Byrne, Lazzerini and Hurley concluded the competition with the team's 15th victory of the day in the 400 Free Relay (3:00.10).
Top Dives:
Freshman Hayden Elliott led the Nittany Lions on the boards, sweeping the diving events by winning both the 1-Meter (329.03) and 3-Meter (380.85) with a pair of NCAA Diving Zone cuts.
Event Winners:
1000 Free – Cisternas (9:17.90)
200 Free – Brewer (1:40.54)
100 Back –Byrne (48.98)
100 Breast – Raisanen (55.79)
200 Fly – Folger (1:48.77)
50 Free – Baganha (19.89)
200 Back – Harvey (1:48.73)
200 Breast – Lazzerini (2:00.65)
500 Free – Cisternas (4:29.17)
100 Fly – Baganha (47.12) %
400 IM – Lulek (3:55.33)
1-Meter – Elliot (329.03) #
3-Meter – Elliot (380.85) #
% NCAA Swimming B Cut
# NCAA Diving Zone Cut
Up Next:
Both Nittany Lion squads travel to Raleigh, North Carolina on November 17 to compete at the infamous three-day NC State Invitational and face UNC, Duke, Army, Arizona State and Stanford.
Keep up with Penn State swimming and diving by following the team on Instagram (@PennStateSwimDive), Twitter (@PennStateSWIM) and Facebook (Penn State Swimming & Diving).
