MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Penn State men’s swimming and diving team closed out the third day of the 2025 Big Ten Championships with 19 NCAA B-Cuts, 3 first-place finishes, and a Sportsmanship Honoree award.
Senior Victor Baganha was named a 2025 Big Ten Swim and Dive Sportsmanship honoree at the beginning of Friday’s finals. The honor recognizes a student-athlete’s dedication to sportsmanship throughout the season, and is given to hundreds of Big Ten athletes each season around the conference.
Preliminaries:
- Senior Victor Baganha swam a fast 45.75 in the 100 Fly to qualify for the B-Final. The time was just one second behind his personal record.
- Matthew Bittner placed right behind Baganha, swimming a 45.94 in the 100 Fly to move onto B-Finals that evening.
- Junior Cooper Morley will be the third Nittany Lion in the 100 Fly B-Finals. He swam a quick 46.19 in preliminaries, just 0.05 seconds behind his personal record.
- Sophomore Sean Honey placed sixteenth in the 400 IM to advance to the B-Finals with a time of 3:47.59.
- Alex Karahalis also competed in the 400 IM, qualifying for C-Finals with a time of 3:50.27.
- Sophomore Toni Slavica had an impressive swim in the 200 Free, finishing first in his heat and recording a new personal record. The fast 1:35.06 qualified him for the B-Finals and a NCAA B-Cut.
- Tylor Kim finished right behind Slavica in the 200 Free, qualifying for B-Finals with a time of 1:35.07.
- Filipe Pinheiro swam a quick 52.49 in the 100 Breast finishing fourth in his heat. The finish qualified him for the 100 Breast B-Finals.
- Mariano Lazzerini joins him in the 100 Breast B-Finals with a time of 52.78 in fourteenth place.
- Junior Matthew Bittner had a strong performance in the 100 Back, setting a new personal record of 45.48. He finished sixth which qualifies him for the A-Finals in the event.
- Cooper Morley advanced to the B-Finals in another event, the 100 Back. He swam a quick 46.39, good for eleventh place.
Finals:
- Matthew Bittner started off the evening with a first-place finish in the 100 Fly B-Finals with a time of 45.76. The time is a new PR for Bittner and is the third-fastest time in the 100 Fly in school history.
- Sophomore Alex Karahalis placed second in the 200 IM C-Finals, setting a new personal record of 3:46.68.
- Graduate student Filipe Pinheiro won the 100 Breast B-Finals with a fast time of 52.43. The time breaks his personal record and goes down as the third-fastest time in Penn State swimming history.
- Bittner adds his name to the record book again with his finish in the 100 Back A-Finals. The time of 45.68 is the third-fastest in school history.
- Cooper Morley completed a comeback win in the 100 Back B-Finals, swimming a quick 45.91.
Up Next:
The Nittany Lions are back in action tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST for preliminaries to close out the 2025 Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships. The finals begin at 6:30 p.m. EST with events running through the evening.
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