The Penn State men's swimming team is gearing up for the Georgia Invitational to be held this weekend, Dec. 6-8. The three-day event will feature competition against nationally ranked Georgia (1-1), and Alabama (1-1), Florida Atlantic (1-1) and Florida State University (1-1).

The team is coming off a rocky 0-2 start with losses to the University of Virginia and nationally ranked University of Florida. The team is looking to improve times this weekend and see where it stands before going on its spring training trip Dec. 28- Jan. 11.

"Our performance does not reflect the talent of this team," said Penn State swimming coach Bill Dorenkott. "Our record right now does not give credit to the hard work and consistency in our practices. This is the best conditioned team I have had in my eight years of coaching here."

The team spent much of the fall practicing on the middle distance, and will start to focus more on sprinting towards February in order to prepare for the end of the season and the Big Ten Championships and U.S. Senior Nationals.

"We sent these kids home for four days over break, and told them to take care of business and rest" Dorenkott said. "So we'll see how that paid off this weekend."

The Nittany Lions are looking to dominate this weekend in their strongest races, the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, and the individual medley.

Junior Todd Minnier and sophomore John Lutz have been solid in the freestyle in the past two meets.

Against UVA, Minnier won the 200 and 100 freestyle with impressive times, and is looking to improve this weekend at the invitational before the break.

Freshman Dan Valez and senior Conor McDonald have been consistent in the breaststroke.

Valez has had a strong first two meets in his first year as a Nittany Lion, winning the 50-yard freestyle against Florida and the 200-yard breaststroke against UVA.

Dorenkott is looking for senior Matt Gordon to dominate in the butterfly along with Eric Gordon in the freestyle.

The Lions also have a strong 400-yard freestyle relay that consists of senior Eugene Botes, senior Matt Haupt, Minnier and Lutz. The relay has been undefeated in the past two meets.

"The performance this weekend is going to tell us a lot about where we stand for the rest of the season," Dorenkott said.