Jan. 15, 2011
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Penn State men's swimming & diving team continued its stellar showing on Saturday after a strong Friday night to sweep host Maryland, 219-129 and Pittsburgh, 195-.5-151.5 at the Eppley Recreation Center. Between the two days, Penn State notched 13 total wins.
A day after taking six events, the Nittany Lions (2-4) picked up where they left off by winning the 400 medley relay on Saturday morning. The squad of Graham Risley (Riverside, Ill.), Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.), Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and Luke Bushman (Green Bay, Wis.) won a tight race in 3:20.71.
To follow up the 400 medley relay win, Penn State's Brian Alden (Lansdale, Pa.) continued his strong efforts with a win in the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:40.39, a nearly two-second victory.
The next solid showing came in the 200 IM by Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and James Capparell (Bridgewater, N.J.) who finished second (1:53.51) and third (1:55.02), respectively.
Bushman and Matt Salig (Downingtown, Pa.) garnered the top two spots in the 200 fly as Bushman touched the wall in 1:49.97 and Salig in 1:50.91. Penn State's dominating performance continued in the 50 free as Alden scored his second win of the day in a time of 20.75.
Jeff Gomez (Morristown, N.J.) led all Lions in the 200 back with a time of 1:51.13 before giving way to Scherer and Marino in the 200 breaststroke. Marino would finish third (2:09.13) behind a four-second win by Scherer (2:04.72).
Salig won the 500 free in a time of 4:38.64 before the 400 freestyle relay team of Alden, Bushman, Shane Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) and John Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) captured top honors with a time of 3:04.78. Neither the 500 nor the 400 free relay were scored in PSU's favor due to already having clinched both dual meets.
In the all-time series, Penn State improves to 7-13 against Maryland and 16-34 vs. Pittsburgh. It was the second straight Nittany Lion rout of Maryland, having beat the Terrapins 455-327 combined in the last two years to continue a four-meet winning streak. Against Pittsburgh, it's the third PSU win over the Panthers in four meets.
The Nittany Lions return to Happy Valley for a dual meet against St. Bonaventure next week on Saturday. The meet kicks off at noon against the Bonnies at McCoy Natatorium. Penn State is a dominating 26-0 all-time against SBU.
--NITTANY LIONS--