Swimwomen sink, soar in weekend pair

They went from the middle of the spectrum to the edge.

The Penn State women's swim ming and diving team lost a close meet to Minnesota this weekend but easily dismantled Pittsburgh 179-119 yesterday.

Minnesota (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten) came to Penn State on Saturday ranked No. 9 in the nation with only one conference loss. The Golden Gophers overcame an early Penn State lead to win 168-131. Penn State (5-4, 1-4) was able to win some key events but lost ground in areas hurt by injuries.

"We knew Minnesota would give us good races," senior captain Erica Van Tassel said. "We just wanted to better ourselves and to challenge them."

Penn State did very well in the relay competitions, capturing the 200-yard medley and the 200-yard freestyle.

The team also showed strengths in several individual events. Senior Carmen Kondra won the 50-yard freestyle, junior Arianne Adams won the 200 freestyle and junior Lesley Spada finished first in the 100-yard backstroke.

The highlight in the individual events was freshman Katie Anderson's upset victory in the 1000-yard freestyle. Anderson defeated Minnesota's Kim Wilson, the defending Big Ten champion, in that event.

Minnesota, however, would eventually prove to have too much depth for Penn State to handle. The Golden Gophers really hurt the Lady Lions in the diving events. Penn State sophomore Melanie Jackson and freshman Shannon Malinowski both competed with injuries but were not up to their usual form.

"It's not that the divers didn't try, they were injured," Penn State coach Bob Krimmel said. "Minnesota was just too tough, but we got some fantastic efforts."

The Pittsburgh story was a more personal one.

Van Tassel, who was recruited by Pittsburgh, said many Pittsburgh swimmers had chosen that school over Penn State.

"In the locker room before the meet, I wanted our team to show what Pittsburgh had missed," she said.

Penn State, which actually held a 15-point lead halfway against Minnesota, held a 26-point lead against Pittsburgh at the midpoint.

"We were leading against Minnesota and lost, so one of the keys was to start off the second half strong," Krimmel said.

Competing for the second time in the weekend did not seem to slow down the Lions who shook off fatigue to dispose of Pittsburgh.

Penn State won 12 of the 17 events en route to building a 60-point margin of victory. Kondra, Adams, Spada and Anderson all won events against Pittsburgh. Again, the Lions were not able to do much in the diving events.

"The whole weekend was great," Spada said. "We toughened up against Minnesota and came through again against Pittsburgh."