Swimmen coach wins No. 100, squad beats La Salle

How sweet it was.

The Penn State men's swimming and diving team (8-2, 3-2 Big Ten) crushed La Salle (6-6) 172-96 Saturday afternoon at McCoy Natatorium. By doing so, coach Peter Brown became the first coach in Penn State men's swimming history to win 100 meets.

Senior Day was celebrated in fabulous fashion, as the five graduating seniors -- Seth Kane, Tom Houck, David Boardman, Drew Jackson and Greg Stacey -- had stellar afternoons. Kane finished his diving career by winning both the 1- and 3-meter events. In the pool, Stacey won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.39 seconds and swam freestyle in the victorious 200-yard medley team with Boardman, junior Dan Okoniewksi, and sophomore Gavin Carscallen.

"It was very nice to go out on top," Stacey said.

Seniors continued their winning ways as Houck was victorious in the 200 freestyle relay team with Carscallen and sophomores Rob Balazs and Kevin Smith.

Although it was Senior Day, the seniors did not get all the attention.

Junior Alvaro Velez turned heads and grabbed some of the spotlight. Velez, a Columbian native, won both the 100-yard butterfly (50.83) and 200-yard butterfly (1:53.19) with ease.

"I am getting my speed back at just the right time," Velez said.

Other individual winners for the Lions were sophomore Steve Medei in the 200-yard breast, freshman Jason Pollock in the 200-yard free, freshman Brian McKenna in the 200-yard backstroke, sophomore Paul Monyok in the 500-yard freestyle and sophomore Matt Teeter in the 100-yard breaststroke.

La Salle's only wins came from sophomore Christopher Hefty in the 200-yard individual medley and Bryan Baiocchi in the 100-yard backstroke.

The Lions' victory capped off the 1997-98 regular season and improved Brown's career record at Penn State to 100-37 in 14 seasons. Although Brown said this victory was not the sweetest of his career, he did say it was very special to him.

"It couldn't have gone much better," Brown said. "It was a very fine afternoon and I had an excellent time."

The Lions are now finished competing until the Big Ten Championships at Minnesota Feb. 26-28.

And how sweet it would be if the Lions could duplicate their performance against La Salle in Minnesota.