It all went according to plan. Well, almost according to plan. Michigan and Northwestern battled for the title, with Michigan winning its eighth-consecutive Big Ten Championship and Northwestern playing the role of the bridesmaid.

But Penn State, which had hoped to be in the top three, repeated its fourth-place finish of a year ago. Although the Lady Lions scored 388 points (10 better than last year), they could not knock Ohio State out of third place.

"Well, the goal was third, but realistically, third was a dream," Coach Bob Krimmel said. "But I don't think the kids looked at it that way. Fourth place was an amazing accomplishment by the kids."

It could have been worse. The Lady Lions entered Saturday night's action in sixth, needing to swim extremely well in order to overtake Minnesota and Wisconsin and move into fourth place.

"In the last relay, if we finished within two places of Wisconsin and Wisconsin didn't win, we'd beat them and the same thing with Minnesota," Krimmel said. "Wisconsin finished second, we finished third and Minnesota was fifth -- we were able to hold off both. It was truly an amazing performance."

The Lady Lions' finish was the result of hard work in both individual and relay events. The Lady Lions broke 10 school records at the Championships and Julie Krail won the 100-yard breaststroke to become Penn State's first Big Ten Champion in a non-freestyle event. Regan Stacey won the 1,650 freestyle and broke the previous Penn State record by almost three seconds.

"I think they go in looking to swim fast and do their best and if records come with it, so be it," Krimmel said. "I'm happy for them. It will be nice to put some new names on the (record) board."

Stacey and Krail were named to the All-Conference Team for their performances during the Championships. In addition, several Lady Lions had NCAA consideration times in multiple events. Stacey (200, 500, and 1650 freestyle), Kim Kephart (500 and 1650 free), Deni Rudy (50 and 100 free), Krail (200 I.M. and 100 breast), Janet Worobel (100 and 200 back) and Lisa Pastrana (200 I.M. and 200 back) all swam times that will be considered and could lead to these swimmers appearing at the NCAA Championships in March.

"Going into the meet, I had it in the back of my mind to get under two minutes in the 200 backstroke" said Pastrana, who didn't break that barrier but still had a time worthy of NCAA consideration. "In the I.M. I set the goal to do my best. I was shocked by the 200 I.M. time. I'm happy with both of my times."

Rudy finished eighth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.77, which was one tenth of a second better than her best time of the season. Last year she finished second in the event behind teammate Fran McDermid, but blames herself for the lower finish this year.

"The 50 has always been one of my favorite events," Rudy said. "I wanted to win, if not make the top three. I was very tense and nervous the first day. I was unable to control my nervous energy. After the first day, I calmed down and swam better."

Part of Rudy's swimming better included finishing third in the 100 freestyle and helping the freestyle relay teams to third place finishes as well.

"It was really exciting to be a part of the relays," she said. "Hopefully, some of the relays will qualify for NCAA's. Some people had awesome, awesome swims --I'm really happy for Regan and Julie. I'm happy with the team as a whole."

Because only some Lady Lions will go the NCAA Championships, Big Tens represent the end of the season for most of the team. Krimmel considers this to be "depressing" and wanted "to keep it (the championships) going." Krimmel, however, doesn't have to get in the pool and swim.

"It's tiring mentally because you're thinking about your event that day, and it's physically tiring," Rudy said. "Right now it's nice to be home relaxing. I'm relieved to be done."