Again Penn State finished a season in the "Sweet 16" of a men's sport, this time with a little less fanfare.

The Penn State men's swimming and diving team capped a successful season with a finish of No. 16 at the NCAA Championships held at Texas A&M. The finish bested the team's previous top finish of No. 19 achieved just a year ago.

"Teamwise, that's the best we've ever done," head coach Peter Brown said. "That's the most competitive of any NCAA I've ever been to, but I expected a tight and competitive meet. I was hoping for a top 15 finish, but we finished sixteenth, so, we got pretty close. Our effort was certainly there. I was very proud of our representation."

Texas won the three-day meet with 597.5 points. Stanford placed second at 457.5 points with Tennessee third at 330.5 points. Penn State had 72.5 points.

Brown was pleased at the number of placings, and also the fact that a majority of Nittany Lions moved up in the results relative to their seeding.

"Sixteenth is our best finish ever, but I think we're better than that," Retrum said.

For the Penn State senior swimmers, the three-day event would be their last. Penn State graduates 10 swimmers, four of which qualified to compete at the championships — John Retrum, Joe Peresan, Matt Haupt and diver Chris Alderman.

Penn State was able to score points in eight of the 21 events, including the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Bob Molettiere, Eugene Botes, Todd Minnier and Retrum, which set the Big Ten record at the Big Ten Championships earlier this year, placed No. 10 in the event. The same team also placed No. 10 in the 200-yard freestyle relay at the NCAA Championships.

Junior Martin Schierhorn finished No. 13 in the 500-yard freestyle. His time in the preliminary for that event reset the school record he already set at the Big Ten championships. Schierhorn also scored points for Penn State by finishing No. 13 in the 200-yard freestyle.

The team of Schierhorn, Minnier, Haupt and Retrum touched the wall with a time of 6:30.85, good for No. 10 in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Molettiere finished in a tie for No. 13 in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.94 seconds.

The 200-yard medley relay of Hostetler, Peresan, Botes, and Molettiere finished No. 12 with a time of 1:28.94.

Botes, Big Ten champion in the 100-yard butterfly, finished No. 14 in the event at the NCAA Championships.

In the diving competition, Alderman placed No. 19 and junior Steve Bohner placed No. 29.

For team captain Retrum, finishing his final collegiate race was a time to think about Penn State's future.

"We had a representative from each class. Just going to a meet like that does tremendous things for their confidence. Next time they won't be looking around to see who's there, they're going to be looking around for those there who they can beat. To those guys, I want to impart to never be satisfied. Penn State is a great place to be right now."

Brown reiterated the importance of the experience factor.

"We did about how I hoped we would have done considering half the guys we took had never been to NCAAs before," Brown said.

As for the graduating seniors, Brown was very pleased.

"Retrum, Hos (Hostetler), Peresan — those guys each did something they've never done before, something better than they've ever done."

Michigan's Chris Thompson set two national records, in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard freestyle. Texas swimmer and Pennsylvania native Brendan Hansen also set a national record in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Big Ten champion Minnesota finished in ninth place, while Michigan placed No. 10, just ahead of host Texas A&M.