Wandering swimmen hope to continue road-win streak

On the road again.

That's where the Penn State men's swimming and diving teams will find themselves today and tomorrow. The Nittany Lions will be in East Lansing, Mich., at 3 p.m. today to challenge Michigan State and will then travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to meet Purdue at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

Being on the road is not so foreign to the Lions anymore, as they just returned from a Florida training trip over the semester break. As a result of the sunny trip, the Lions have grown to like the road. Both of their road meets so far, against Syracuse and James Madison, have resulted in victories. In fact, Penn State not only thrashed James Madison 143-80, but set several pool records in the process.

It is unlikely that Penn State will produce such dominance again. These two upcoming road meets against Big Ten opponents will be much harder for the Lions because of the competition level and the proximity of the two meets.

"Whenever you travel and have back-to-back meets like this, it's very hard," sophomore Paul Monyok said.

Michigan State is a solid team, but the Lions' depth gives them an edge against the Spartans. Purdue, which finished third in the conference last year, looks to be a much tougher opponent. The Boilermakers have had success against Penn State in the past -- they defeated the Lions in the McCoy Natatorium last year.

"Purdue will definitely be a tough, close meet," butterflyer Gavin Carscallen said.

Coach Peter Brown went a step further than Carscallen and said the Michigan State meet will be close as well.

"It's our toughest weekend of the year," said Brown. "Both meets will be a toss up."

If the Lions win both meets, a viable outcome, the possibility of an undefeated season arises. The Lions, now 5-0, could improve to 7-0 after the weekend and will then have two meets remaining. An undefeated season, something very coveted by most college teams, is ironically not important to the Lions.

"We could easily go undefeated," said senior Greg Stacey. "But it doesn't really matter to us."

The importance of an undefeated season is lessened because the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis loom heavily on the minds of the swimmers.

The regular season in swimming is much like the regular season of college basketball, in that athletes use it to tune up for the "real" season -- the playoffs.

In swimming, the playoffs begin when the Big Ten Championships kick off in late February and continue into April with the USS Nationals.

"Going undefeated is not an issue to us," said Brown. "Swimming well at the end of the season is."