Swimmen finish 20th in national title hunt

The Penn State men's swimming and diving team capped its historic season with a 20th-place finish this past weekend at the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis.

The Nittany Lions, who finished No. 3 among Big Ten squads, were unable to improve on their No. 15 ranking going into the three-day event, but the 12 Lions did put up 41 points -- the most ever for Penn State at the national competition.

The Lions 800-yard freestyle relay team, comprised of Martin Schierhorn, Holden Comeau, Kevin Smith and John Retrum, led the Big Ten champions with a school-record time of 6:31.11, which gained third place and 19 points for the team.

Individually, Schierhorn had the best finish in Penn State NCAA Championships history by swimming to 14th-place in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 4:23.35.

Auburn held off defending champion Stanford 467.5-414.5 to win the national title. Texas, California and Arizona rounded out the top five.

-- by Anthony Miller