Swimmen top Iowa and OSU to stay unbeaten at home

By LAUREN KOCUR
Collegian Staff Writer

In an emotional weekend meet for the Penn State men's swimming and diving team, the Nittany Lions stayed perfect at home by coming away with two victories.

On Friday and Saturday the Lions hosted Iowa and Ohio State at McCoy Natatorium in the last home meet for Penn State's senior class.

The Lions (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) placed first in almost every event and produced scores of 223-120 against Iowa and 220-130 against Ohio State. Freshman Josh Weaver continued to prove he is one of the best in the collegiate circuit at the backstroke with victories in both the 100- (50.66) and 200-yard (1:48.65) events.

The Lion divers also managed to get past the weekend's obstacles, placing first and second in the one-meter event and second and third in the three-meter event. Chris Alderman continued his reign at the top of the list with a first-place finish in the one-meter.

"The kids (Ohio State) had here tonight we didn't beat at Big Tens, they beat us at both boards," Penn State diving coach Craig Brown said. "It was a really big step for us to one-two a top Big Ten finalist."

Sophomore Brian Hostetler broke a pool record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.36 seconds, breaking the previous record of 20.47. Other Lions were busy breaking records, as well. The 400-yard medley relay team broke the pool record of 3:19.96 by only 0.04 seconds with a time of 3:19.92. Both the 800- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams broke pool records as well. The 800-yard team set a new record of 6:40.02, while the 400-yard team set the record at 3:01.01.

Bob Molettiere helped break the 400-yard relay record, but also managed to break an individual record with his split time. At 43.85, his split for the 100-yard freestyle shattered the previous pool record of 44.26 and the school record of 44.74.

While breaking records was one of the highlights of the weekend meet, it was by no means a focus, especially for head swimming coach Peter Brown.

"We're good enough to do these things, so that's not something that I get excited about," he said.

The focus now for the Lions is getting past their next meet and to the Big Ten Championships.

Peter Brown, while proud of his team's performance, is still looking at things the team has to overcome.

"We had some guys that mentally, here and there, made some mistakes," he said. "It's not a matter of conditioning, it's not a matter of whether they work hard or not, it comes down to doing the things that give you a chance to compete they way you're capable of. And if you're getting in your own way, then those are the things you've got to correct."

The swimmers also recognized the need for improvement and see every meet as something to overcome.

"This was just another stepping stone," said sophomore swimmer Steve Hodgins. "This weekend was an obstacle and you get by this obstacle and move on."

The meet proved to be less an obstacle for the Lions and more of a large hurdle for Iowa and Ohio.

Iowa struggled throughout the meet to stay afloat, coming up with only one individual victory -- Marko Milenkovic in the 400-yard individual medley.

While the Hawkeyes haven't competed since December, coach John Davey was still pleased with his team's performance in defeat.

Ohio State coach Bill Wadley wasn't quite as calm.

"We got whipped very badly," he said. "We got spanked. Penn State is an awesome team. We swam pretty well. We didn't swim bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they swam very good. It hurts to lose, but they did a great job."

The Lions are now looking ahead to their meet at LaSalle on Friday when they will also meet Seton Hall and Connecticut.