Swimmen better conference finish

By KATE BLASCHAK
Collegian Sports Writer

Before the Big Ten championships, Swimming Coach Peter Brown said it was going to be a challenge to improve last season's ninth-place finish. The Penn State swimmers and divers were up to that challenge.

Penn State ended the competition Saturday night in sixth place with a final score of 249.5.

It was the end to a championships filled with determination, upsets and the unexpected. Through it all, the Lions never gave up. What resulted were impressive performances by numerous individuals.

After the first day of competition, the team was in fifth place, leading Ohio State by a small margin.

All four Lion divers placed in the 1-meter dive -- senior Chris Devine repeated history by capturing the second-place finish, succumbing to Minnesota's P.J. Bogart. Bogart was named Big Ten Diver of the Year again, as well as Diver of the Championship.

Diving Coach Craig Brown said he felt great about his divers' performances.

"This is the best performance by far by the Penn State diving team at any conference meet," he added. "We felt great to help the team move up on the chart."

Junior Chip Berry set a school record with his time of 4 minutes, 26.54 seconds in the 500 freestyle. Freshman Greg Stacey placed 11th in the 50 free, swimming his season-best time (20.51). Penn State took eighth in both the 200 free relay and the 400 medley relay.

While Friday brought many placewinners for the Lions, it also brought some disappointment --junior Gilad Chen and sophomore Alex Cunha were both disqualified for illegal breaststroke turns in the 400 IM. Both swimmers would have placed.

The 200 medley relay team of junior Jason Gray and freshmen David Boardman, Kevin Langer and Stacey finished fifth with a time of 1:31.05. Tenth-place finishes went to Boardman in the 100 breast (56.7) and sophomore Brian Palme in the 100 backstroke (51.3).

On Saturday, sophomore George Reimer broke his own school record in the 1,650 free, set at last season's championships, with a time of 15:25.43.

Also placing high on Saturday was Chen, who finished seventh in the 200 breast (2:02.52), and the 400 free relay team of Reimer, Stacey, sophomore Brad Blankenhorn and senior Jason Eby, which took ninth with a time of 3:02.94.

Peter Brown said the team's jump from ninth to sixth place was tremendous.

"It was the highest finish ever at Big Tens, and the best we could have done this year," he added. "(Our finish) says a lot about the character of the team. They could have easily given up."

Michigan was crowned champion for the 10th consecutive year. Individual Wolverines received many honors for their exceptional performances. Tom Dolan was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Jason Lancaster was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Seven-time NCAA champion Gustavo Borges was recognized as Swimmer of the Championships and Coach Jon Urbanchek was named Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.

Rounding out the finishers were Minnesota (2nd, 541 points), Iowa (3rd, 481), Indiana (4th, 401), Ohio State (5th, 362), Purdue (7th, 247), Wisconsin (8th, 224.5), Northwestern (9th, 222.5) and Michigan State (10th, 138).