Swimmen set to end regular season in tri-meet at LaSalle

By LAUREN KOCUR
Collegian Staff Writer

Tonight, the Penn State men's swimming and diving team faces its last non-championship meet of the season.

At 7 p.m., the Nittany Lions will travel to LaSalle for a meet also involving Connecticut and Seton Hall.

Penn State has faced and beaten LaSalle all 12 times the teams met in the past. However, although Penn State and Seton Hall have not met since 1951, the Lions are 0-2 lifetime against the Pirates. The Lions will be meeting Connecticut for the first time tonight.

Connecticut has been making waves in the Big East posting a 7-1 record with its only loss coming against Massachusetts, 138-101. LaSalle has posted a strong record of 5-1 for the season with its only loss coming against George Washington in another tight meet (134-102). Seton Hall (3-6) has had the least success of the four teams.

Coming off two strong Big Ten victories last weekend, the Lions are looking for a more relaxed tempo this time. LaSalle coach John Lyons, on the other hand, is looking forward to letting his swimmers and divers compete at a higher level.

"This meet will give our better swimmers a chance to swim against much better swimmers," he said. "We're not doing this for the win or loss."

In particular, Lyons is glad to give his top 200-yard freestyler Jason Morrow the chance to swim against top Penn State freestylers like Holden Comeau. Morrow's best time of the season to date has been 1:42.42, while Comeau swam the same event last weekend in a time of 1:39.35.

Lyons said Penn State will be the best of the four competitors there tonight, while LaSalle, Connecticut and Seton Hall will all be evenly matched.

The Lions will use this opportunity to try some different things than they normally would against Big Ten foes.

"This should be a fun meet," Lion swimmer Steve Hodgins said. "It's not as tense as something like (last weekend's Ohio State and Iowa meet). At the same time, we'll be able to swim some other events than we're used to."

Tonight will be the last regular season meet for all the teams attending. After this meet, Penn State returns home for an off weekend and to begin training for the Big Ten Championships Feb. 25-27 in Bloomington, Ind.