Penn State's Chris Devine joined the Big Ten's elite divers on Saturday when he topped last year's Big Ten Champion Yoshi Sakata of Ohio State on the 1-meter board by 1.20 points.

Diving Coach Craig Brown said the objective of this meet would be to expose his divers to the conference's best-of-the-best, and redshirt junior Devine took advantage of the opportunity.

"I was really pumped up for this meet," Devine said. "I had heard a lot about him and I knew he was good. We both just dove our butts off and I just happened to beat him."

Devine knew he would have to hit every dive to win the 3-meter, his weaker event. But Sakata wasn't going to lose twice.

"That was the best 3-meter diving that I've ever seen in a dual meet," Devine said of Sakata's performance. "I was hanging with him for a while until I screwed up."

Brown said Devine's results can only mean better things are to come for his top diver, who missed last year's Big Ten Championships.

"It was his best meet so far," he said. "He executed better than Yoshi. His confidence level is sure to be up now."

Penn State swimming, on the other hand, couldn't keep up with Ohio State, which placed first in seven events and won overall 149-94. Men's Swimming Coach Peter Brown said it was difficult to compete against a team like the Buckeyes who seemed to have no weaknesses.

"OSU's strength is they have someone good in every event, and then they have someone behind them," he said. "We're not that deep where we could afford to have people off like today."

The Buckeyes cleaned up in the 100-yard freestyle taking first through third. This was a big change for the Lions who swept the event two weekends ago against Virginia.

"I was looking for things to develop and things didn't come in like I thought they would," Brown said. "We were a little flat and that changed the complexion of the entire meet."