COLUBMUS, Ohio – The Penn State swimming and diving team completed the 3-day Ohio State Invitational in Columbus Saturday evening. The men’s team finished in fifth place and the women in seventh place.
Men
Cooper Morley started off the morning strong with a third-place finish in the 200 Back preliminaries, recording a time of 1:41.70. He went on to touch sixth in finals with a time of 1:43.26.
Junior Matthew Bittner broke his personal record in the 100 Free back-to-back in the preliminaries and finals. He started the morning with a best of 44.84, then bested it in finals with a time of 44.45.
Sophomore Alex Karahalis continued his hot weekend, recording another personal best in the 200 Fly preliminaries with a time of 1:44.58. He went on to finish seventh in finals, good for a B-Cut.
Jack Harvey had a strong day, breaking his personal record in the 200 Back in preliminaries, then again in finals. He swam a 1:43.15 in the morning, then finished fifth in finals with a time of 1:43.05.
Junior Mariano Lazzerini recorded a top ten finish in the 200 Breast, finishing in 1:56.33 for a B-Cut.
Women
Senior Mac Sullivan finished first in her heat in the 200 Fly, tallying a new personal best of 2:02.28 in the process.
Catherine Meisner also set a new personal best, swimming a 49.53 in the 100 Free to break her previous record by 0.15 seconds. The swim was good for a sixteenth-place finish.
Relays
The women’s 400 Free Relay team, made up of Catherine Meisner, Margaret Markvardt, Maura Fluehr and Morgan Moore, finished in eighth place with a time of 3:18.08.
Two men’s relay teams competed in the 400 Free Relay. Tylor Kim, Cooper Morley, Mariano Lazzerini and Matthew Bittner placed eleventh with a time of 2:56.97 while the team made up of Jack Harvey, Justin Schneider, Rylan Anselm and Ryan McNutt finished sixteenth with a time of 2:59.12.
Top Finishes
200 Back: Cooper Morley (1:41.70)
200 Back: Jack Harvey (1:43.05)
100 Free: Matthew Bittner (44.45)
200 Fly: Alex Karahalis (1:44.58)
200 Fly: Mac Sullivan (2:02.28)
Up Next
A few Nittany Lions will travel to North Carolina to compete in the TYR Pro Series from December 4-7. The team will open the new year on the road for a dual-meet at Northwestern and the University of Chicago on January 11 at noon.
For updates on Penn State swimming and diving, follow the team on Instagram (@pennstateswimdive), Twitter (@PennStateSwim) and Facebook (Penn State Swimming & Diving).