With the Big Ten Championships less than a month away, it would have been easy for the men's swimming and diving team to overlook its last regular season foe, Ohio State.

It could have been easy for the Nittany Lions to continue looking ahead towards top schools like Michigan and Minnesota, forgetting about the unranked Buckeyes and tripping up in their finale.

They didn't.

No. 13 Penn State posted an impressive 145-98 victory this past weekend at Ohio State's Mike Peppe Aquatic Center.

"It is difficult to perform well in Ohio State's pool, both swimming and diving-wise. The team handled the conditions quite well and posted some good numbers," coach Peter Brown said.

Up four spots in the rankings since their last meet, a split decision between Michigan and Purdue, the Nittany Lions started strong and never relented, taking the day's first event, the 200-yard medley relay in record setting time. The team of Brian Hostetler, Mike Laskowski, Eugene Botes and Bob Molettiere posted a time of 1:31.78, breaking the pool record and giving the Nittany Lions the early lead.

Ohio State's Vladi Dusil contested the early lead by winning the day's next event, the 1000-yard freestyle in 9:28.22, less than a second ahead of Penn State's Steve Hodgins (9:28.57) and Erik Gordon (9:28.62).

Ohio State would capture the next event's top mark, the 200-yard freestyle before the Nittany Lions would retaliate by placing first in seven of the day's final eight swimming events.

Botes later set another pool record, in the 100-yard butterfly, with a time of 48.59 seconds. Only a sophomore, Botes has been the Nittany Lions' top performer this season in the event. Botes was also a member of the team that placed first on the day's final event, the 200-yard freestyle.

"Botes' 100 fly was especially good considering the circumstances," Brown said.

Ohio State's Brian Malich was the only double winner for the Buckeyes, as he captured the 100 and 200-yard freestyle.

Senior captain John Retrum, who was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week following his pair of first place finishes against Michigan and Purdue, placed third in the 50-yard freestyle, and second in the 100-yard freestyle.

The day's diving events proved less successful for the Nittany Lions, as they could not garner either of the top two spots in either the one or three meter events. Ohio State's Heath Knowling took first in both events, as the Nittany Lions trio of Chris Alderman, Steve Bohner and Jeff Harrison took third, fourth and sixth, respectively, in both events.

"Penn State is certainly one of the top two or three teams in the conference. Depth-wise, they are as good as anyone in the country, with the exception of maybe a handful of schools. Their No. 2, 3, and 4 guys are real close to their No. 1 guys, and their No. 1 guys are great. They have a shot at winning the Big Ten title this season," Ohio State coach Bill Wadley said.

"This was our best team effort to date in terms of leadership and depth. These will be critical factors for us at Big Tens. We are in a strong position as we head down the home stretch," coach Peter Brown said.

The Nittany Lions head to Minnesota next for the Big Ten Championships, starting Thursday, Feb. 22 and continuing through Saturday, Feb. 24.