Eleven swimmen qualify for NCAAs

By LAUREN KOCUR
Collegian Staff Writer

At the Last Chance Invitational last weekend, the Penn State men's swim team gave it their all.

Eleven swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships, more than have qualified at any time in Penn State's history. All five of Penn State's relay teams qualified for the meet, allowing the members of the relay to swim up to three individual races.

The 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams will consist of Dan Okoniewski, Holden Comeau, Bob Moletierre, and Brian Hostetler. Hostetler will also be a member of the 200- and 400-yard medley relays.

In the 200-yard, Brian McKenna, Gavin Carscallen, and Matt Teeter will join him, while in the 400-yard, Josh Weaver will be joining Carscallen and Teeter.

Finally, the 800-yard freestyle relay team will be comprised of Martin Schierhorn, Kevin Smith, John Retrum, and Comeau.

Also at the meet, Paul Monyok qualified for the 1000-yard freestyle and managed to break both the pool and team records for the event. The previous team record was 9:16.89 seconds set by Chip Berry in 1995, while the previous pool record was 9:14.00 held by Peter Wrig of Virginia, set in 1994.

Monyok's time of 9:13.91 shattered both.

Carscallen also set a pool record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 48.61, breaking the 10-year-old record of 48.62 held by Tom Hay from Peters Township High School.

The meet was a chance for swimmers to compete in events they needed qualifying times for or events they just wanted to swim. Smith was one such swimmer there from Penn State.

He was trying to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 100-yard freestyle, and wanted to swim the 500-yard freestyle just because he felt like it. While he did not qualify in the individual event, he will still be joining his relay team.

Comeau swam for a completely different reason. He had previously qualified for the national meet in the relay, so he swam in the Last Chance meet to pace fellow swimmer Retrum.

Many of the Penn State swimmers qualified for the relays, but of those who didn't, many qualified for the B-cut times. At the NCAA Championships, there is a qualifying A-time, and a slower B-time. If a swimmer qualifies with the B-time, he may or may not go to the meet. However, qualifying with the A-time allows the swimmers to swim in the event of their A-time as well as any event they qualified for using the B-time.

The 11 qualifiers have 11 more days to practice and prepare for the NCAA Championships to be held March 25-27 at Indianapolis, Ind.