When anchorman Ed Adelman went into the second turn of the 400-yard medley relay, the first event, and made his move on the LaSalle swimmer who had been going stroke-for-stroke with him, his endurance and patience won the race.

"I dusted him," Adelman said, laughing.

That was the way Saturday went for the men's swimming and diving team. The Lions (6-3) won seven of 13 events in the double dual competition with LaSalle and St. Bonaventure, posting a 72-41 win over the Explorers and a 78-35 win over the Bonnies. LaSalle beat St. Bonaventure, 61-52, in their first meeting.

Although winning the double dual meet was important, the coaches were more concerned with individual times than individual places. Swimmers spent the day swimming exhibition races to qualify for the Eastern Seaboard Championships a month away.

In fact, Brad Semle and Phil Meyer took qualifying to extremes. Semle won the 1,000 freestyle in 9:35.18 and Meyer finished in 9:48.02, but both continued swimming and qualified in the 1,650 freestyle. Last year Semle won the event at Easterns in 15:28.34.

The Lions qualified for Easterns in 15 more events. They expect to qualify more people at the meet with Princeton and Tennessee next Saturday.

Many Penn State swimmers posted personal best times.

Dave Poorbaugh swam a heat of the 50 freestyle in 21.54, improving his time by .7 and beating the Eastern qualifying time by .25.

"I'm not a sprinter so I'm really happy about my time," Poorbaugh said. "I'm just happy to have qualified. It's a big step for me."

He also posted bests in the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle during the 400 freestyle relay.

Poorbaugh, a freshman, expects to be faster at Princeton after another week of rest and hopes to join the Lions at Easterns. Even though more swimmers are eligible to compete, teams are limited to 17 swimmers and two divers or 16 swimmers and four divers.

Taking four divers is a possibility for Penn State if the divers can continue winning.

"I have a better attitude about where we're standing now," diver Mike Westwood said. "Before things were just starting to come together, now things are pretty much together."

Westwood continued to reign on both the one-meter and three-meter boards. He scored 308.30 on the low board and 323.90 on the high board to win both events.

On the one-meter board, Steve Zamborsky and Jeff Eagles were a close second and third, respectively. In the three-meter competition, Westwood's 323.90 was far above Eagle's second place in 292.15.

In swimming action, Coach Peter Brown said relays as well as individual events are coming together.

"The important thing right now for most of these guys to get a lot of rest this week," Brown said. "They need to get rest at the pool as well as away."

Walter Sopp, who won the 50 freestyle in 21.24, agreed.

"I'm really tired right now but with a couple weeks of rest I'll be lookin' pretty good," Sopp said.