After a grueling first few meets of the season that including facing four top-25 teams, the Penn State men's swimming and diving team was able to win its first meet of the season on Friday.

The Nittany Lions (1-4) defeated St. Bonaventure (4-3) 130-98 at the McCoy Natatorium.

"Dustin Thompson had a breakthrough performance in the 500 and 1000 free and is starting to reap the rewards of hard work," Penn State swimming and diving coach Bill Dorenkott said.

Thompson came in second place in the 1000-yard freestyle behind teammate Willie Gordon with a time of 9:34.22 and finished the 500-yard freestyle in 4:33.60. Both times are respectively over six and three-second improvements from his best times last season.

Senior Todd Minnier helped the Lions with two individual wins coming in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley.

"The team really came together today," Minnier said. "When the team's behind you it makes you feel better about performing and it's easier to get pumped up."

Junior Daryl Northrop also had two individual wins coming in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle and Nate Torok added a win in the 200-yeard freestyle.

"I think we're doing awesome and really turning corners," Torok said. "If we keep working hard, it'll pay off in the long run."

The diving team was led by Mike Alderman who had a career best score in the 3-meter event by scoring 550.8 points. Alderman also won the 1-meter event with a score of 333.78.

"500 is the magic score in the 3-meter event, and you know you're doing alright if you get that," Penn State diving coach Craig Brown said.

Brown is optimistic about the prospects of his versatile divers.

"One of the things we've found out so far this season is that if one player struggles, there's always two or three players who cover for that person."

Last weeks Atlantic-10 Performer of the Week, Adam Kozlowski, had a disappointing third-place finish in the one-meter event but finished first in the 3-meter.

Dorenkott, Torok, and Minnier agreed they had respect for St. Bonaventure and that the competition was still good even though Penn State had been recently racing more talented teams including Auburn, Virginia, Texas A &M and Washington.

"The nice part about today was that we got to run different people in some different positions," Dorenkott said.