The No. 17 ranked Penn State men's swimming and diving team improved to 2-2 after a win over Michigan State Saturday at the Charles McCaffree pool in East Lansing, Mich.
Saturday's meet marked the first Big Ten competition this season. Michigan State has had a couple of big wins this season against Big Ten teams Purdue and Northwestern.
"We are always excited to win against any team from the Big Ten," said coach Bill Dorenkott.
"While the Spartans are not nationally ranked, beating a team from our conference is still big psychological boost. The meets are always intense and fun to watch."
Strong performances from freshman William Gordon in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:16.09 and senior Matt Haupt in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:40.26, helped to push the Nittany Lions past the Spartans.
Sophomore Daryl Northrop placed first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.45 and senior Eugene Botes also gained first place honors with a time of 45.12 in the 100-yard freestyle.
Junior Todd Minnier looked stellar again, winning the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:48.52.
Sophomore diver Marc Gastaldo took the 1-meter and 3-meter diving honors with scores of 295.20 and 299.25.
"We didn't swim real well today," said Dorenkott. "Our times are nothing to be excited about, but we pushed and worked out some wins, so hopefully that will help us as a team."
All season long the coaches have been pushing team work and commitment, and that showed through in two of the relays on Saturday.
The team of freshman Shawn McLin, freshman Dan Valez, senior John Lutz and Minnier helped set a pool record with a time of 3:23.20 in the 400-meter medley relay.
And the combination of strong swimming from Northrop, Botes, Minnier and Gordon helped seal the second pool record in the 400-meter freestyle medley relay with a time of 3:04.02.
"I am very happy with the relays. It's always nice to walk into someone else's pool and see your kids name on the wall, and in this case they are up there with someone like Mark Spitz and his 1972 record," said Dorenkott.
The Lions will next swim at Rutgers, Saturday, and then wrap up the season at home against West Chester, Sunday on Feb. 2, when the seniors will be honored.
