There is just one meet left to prove that the Penn State men's swimming and diving team can compete with the best.

Ten members of the No. 20 men's swimming and diving team will travel to Athens, Ga. to compete in the NCAA Championships set to start today at 11 a.m. and culminate with Saturday's 7 p.m. finals session. As usual, the meet will follow the regular schedule of events, starting with the 200-yard freestyle and finishing with the 400-yard relay freestyle -- an event that the Nittany Lions (5-3, 1-1) should fare well in.

Along with the four members of the freestyle relay team, Steve Bohner, Andrew Hartner, Paul Kirk, John Lutz, Josh Weaver and Mark Zucca will also make the trip.

With head coach Bill Dorenkott stressing the importance of the post season throughout the regular season, the team is ready to compete. Having placed third in the Big Ten Championships at the beginning of the month, the team is just hoping to improve on that showing as well as placing higher than last season's 16th place finish at nationals. The Lions won four events and broke seven school records in earning their fifth straight top five finish in the Big Ten.

"Every year we've been getting better and we just want to improve on our team average," said sophomore Todd Minnier. "We don't have the tradition that other schools do in swimming, but we still feel that we can be competitive."

National powerhouses Stanford and Auburn currently sit atop the polls at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. With both having won their respective conference titles, it would seem Penn State's confidence level would be lowered. But that is not the case. The swimmers are not intimidated at all and are excited about competing. The level of competition the team had to face in the regular season, against No. 11 Florida and No. 12 Virginia, will also help.

"I look to this meet just as anyone else does," said senior captain Bob Molettiere. "We've competed hard all year, and I don't give anymore respect to other teams than I do to my own team."

The 400-yard relay freestyle team consists of four returning All-Americans -- Molettiere, Minnier, Eugene Botes and Martin Schierhorn. They are seeded fourth behind California, Stanford and Florida. Molettiere is just looking for the team to swim hard and place in the top five. With Molettiere and Botes finishing first and second respectively in the 50-yard freestyle at Big Tens, the two are prepared to make similar waves at the national level.

"Me and Eugene finishing 1-2 was a huge boost for both ourselves and the team," Molettiere said. "Just to know that we're both in the top of the Big Ten in this event is great. I just want to improve on my 13th place finish last year.

"We're going to see a lot of teams this weekend that we competed against this season and that just prepares us more."