No. 10 Wildcats ruin swimwomen’s Senior Day

By JENNIFER BARTOLINI
Collegian Staff Writer

In its final home meet of the season, the Penn State women's swimming and diving team fell just short of victory against Northwestern.

The Lady Lions (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) lost to the No. 10 Wildcats (6-2, 5-1) 167-133 on a day intended to honor five seniors in their last home meet. The day was not a complete loss for Penn State, as the divers won both the one- and three-meter boards with junior Jaime Jaax remaining undefeated in Big Ten competition.

Jaax scored 272.55 to win the one-meter event and 260.40 to win the three-meter boards. In the one-meter, junior Melanie Jackson placed second.

Despite the win, Penn State diving coach Craig Brown said he was a little disappointed in his team's performance. Great workouts followed Penn State's last meet at Pittsburgh, but he felt the team didn't show progress against Northwestern.

"The kids put more pressure on themselves to get qualified for the nationals," he said. "With that pressure on themselves, they didn't pay attention to the little things. They looked past what they needed to do each dive and it cost them."

Sophomore swimmer Katie Anderson was victorious yet again, winning all three of her events. In the 1,000-yard freestyle she finished nearly a length in front of her closest competitor with a time of 10:02.09. She also came in first in the 500-yard freestyle (4:56.52) and the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.36).

Northwestern's Amy Balcerzak, last week's Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, added to her team's point total with three first-place finishes. A native of Sharon, Balcerzak returned to her home state to win the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes and the 200-yard individual medley. Northwestern capped off its performance with two one-two-three finishes in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, which head coach Jim Tierney said was the key to his team's win.

Penn State coach Bill Dorenkott recognized the strength of the Wildcats, but was pleased with the matchup.

"Northwestern's an outstanding team," he said. "They're well coached, they've got great athletes. So coming into today, we had some really great racing on our hands. I thought our ladies responded really well. They swam within themselves and they swam smart races."

Being Senior Day, the meet would not have been complete without a first-place finish by one of the honorees. Senior co-captain Arianne Adams placed first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:52.26.

Happy to help out the team, sad it didn't win, and sorry to say goodbye summed up the emotions of the day for Adams.

"I wanted to do it for the team," she said, "and it was even better since it was the last time I'd swim in that pool."