The Penn State men's swimming and diving team could not duplicate or better its program-best 15th-place finish, which the team accomplished last year, this past weekend at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.

The Nittany Lion combination of senior Eugene Botes and freshman Mike Alderman could only garner seven points, which was good for 34th place in the 51-team field.

"I was pleased overall," Penn State swimming and diving coach Bill Dorenkott said.

The Auburn Tigers swam away from the pack with a score of 609.5 to win their first national championship since 1999. Auburn's dominant performance ended a three-year reign by the host University of Texas, which had won every national title since 2000.

Botes, swimming in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and the 100-yard butterfly, recorded his fastest times of the season in two of the three events he swam, which included a lifetime-best 47.01 and 10th-place finish in the 100 fly.

Botes' times in the 50 and 100 free were unable to get him out of the preliminary rounds. He finished 32nd and 23rd in the events, respectively.

"Gene held his times, including a lifetime best in the 100 fly, and I certainly looked at that as a positive," Dorenkott said.

"For selfish reasons, I would have liked to see him go in the top eight, but he certainly did not for a lack of effort."

A top-eight finish would have earned Botes All-America status.

The NCAA field consisted of 235 swimmers and 35 divers, and Dorenkott believes that roughly 20 percent of the athletes improve on their times and scores once they get to the NCAA meet. Out of the 235 swimmers, only four made finals races that came from programs with 25-yard training facilities, which includes Penn State.

"That's a tribute to Gene's work ethic, his talent, and a tribute to the job the staff and program has done," Dorenkott said. "I'm awfully proud of the things he's accomplished this season, and over the last four years. He's a heck of a guy and we are going to miss him a great deal."

Dorenkott's disappointment to see Botes go could easily be healed with the oncoming talent of freshman diver Alderman.

Alderman began to peak during the NCAA Zone meet, which is a pre-qualifier for entrance into the NCAA Championship meet. The country is broken down into five zones, and each zone has an allotted number of slots to fill with representatives.

"Mike dove pretty darn well," Dorenkott said. "I think [his 24th- and 26th-place finishes were] pretty good for a freshman, and having Mike for three more years gives us something to build on.

"He knocked off a number of guys that had beaten him at the conference level, and that's a positive to see consistency and improvement at the end of the season."

The Longhorns wrapped up second place by accumulating 413 points, followed by Stanford, California and Southern California to round out the top five. Minnesota and Michigan were solid representatives for the Big Ten with seventh- and ninth-place finishes, respectively.