Penn State saved the best for last in the first round of the Eastern Women's Swimming League Championships last night as the Lady Lion 800-yard freestyle relay team of Jill Fretz, Christy Roarke, Kristen Elias and Kristin Lilly captured the final event of the evening.

At the end of the first day of the 1989 Eastern Championships, held at McCoy Natatorium, perennial power Harvard led the field with 275 points, with Penn State second at 229.

Going into the day, the Lady Lions expected to be in fourth place, but because of some good times in the morning (preliminaries), the team was poised in position.

"What a day for us," Coach Bob Krimmel said. "With the competition and pressure, there are going to be ups and downs, but it's a nice way to end the night."

What Krimmel referred to was the pool-record winning relay time of 7:29.14 in a tightly contested race. It wasn't until Lilly pulled away in the final 200 yards that the host team secured the victory.

"It was a really good race," Fretz said, "Harvard was right beside us, we were motivated to beat them. You don't think about time -- the race is too long, You have no idea what could happen."

Fretz, the lead swimmer, had the early job of setting the pace.

"I was supposed to try to stay with them. I had no idea what they would come up with, I just gave it my all," Fretz said.

Pittsburgh is currently in third place (179 points) closely followed by Brown with 169. Rounding out the rest of the top ten are Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Syracuse and Penn.

Harvard started the night by capturing the 200 medley relay by posting a 1:45.74, just ahead of the Lady Lions' 1:46.73. Denise Sonntag, Mariane Quinn, Kristen Elias and Tracey Sheleheda comprised the Penn State team.

Brown's Joanna Zeiger swam a 4:54.39 to win the 500 freestyle. The third event was taken by Darcie Eckert's pool-record 2:04.84 in the 200 individual medley. Elias garnered fifth place with a 2:07.40.

A hotly contested 50 freestyle followed as Harvard's Linda Suhs (23.74) edged Lilly (23.88). Lady Lion freshman Sheleheda placed sixth with a mark of 24.46.

Next up was the one meter diving competition. Dana Kozimor, a sophomore from Northeastern, made the biggest splash by qualifying for the NCAAs with 434.9 points. Amy Schmidt (381.4) and Beth Fahey (379.65) took fifth and sixth positions, as Penn State was the only team to qualify two divers to the finals.

"I couldn't be happier," diving Coach Craig Brown said. "Amy with fifth -- she hit the dives she can do and surprised (me) by hitting the dives she didn't do real well." "Beth too, I know she'll be ready for the three meter."

Tommorrow's schedule includes the 200 freestyle relay, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and the compulsory and optional portion of the three-meter diving.

"Tommorrow should be an interesting day, it depends on which team is hot," Krimmel said.