Tomorrow at the McCoy Natatorium, four Penn State swimmers and one diver will say goodbye to the pool they have called home during the past four years.

The meet against No. 23 Ohio State starts at noon and will mark Senior Day for the Nittany Lions (6-1, 1-0 Big Ten), who will not compete again until the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 24 in Minneapolis.

Senior co-captains Daryl Northrop, Mark Zucca and Dustin Thompson will be honored in ceremonies during the meet along with swimmer Patrik Johansson and diver Marc Gastaldo.

"I'm looking forward to retiring, but I'm enjoying the last couple moments of it," Gastaldo said.

For this group of seniors, tomorrow represents not just the last meet of the season, but a culmination of four years of year-round training and swimming, all of which were under a coach who did not recruit them. Current coach Bill Dorenkott has coached these seniors the past four seasons, but they were recruited by former head coach Peter Brown, who left his position prior to the 2001-02 season.

"They embraced the change," Dorenkott said. "The change was on a lot of levels -- philosophy, training, focus -- and I think that was difficult because they got recruited under one philosophy and inherited another."

Some embraced the change differently than others.

Northrop was nearly kicked off the team during his freshman year for breaking team rules, before, as he put it, "straightened my act out" and became a co-captain as a junior.

Zucca also became co-captain as a junior, but took a different path.

"He has given some real stability to this senior class. If you knew you could count on someone to get the job done, you always knew you could go to Mark," Dorenkott said.

"When we have recruits come in for the weekend, our student-athletes act as hosts. Mark -- for four years -- has been somebody we can count on. A lot of times you get nervous when you put somebody with a host, but I've never been nervous with Mark."

Emotions will surely be running high as the five seniors swim in their last home meet, but don't expect any sympathy from Big Ten rival Ohio State, who hasn't exactly had good outcomes during its recent home finales.

The Buckeyes (9-1, 2-1) suffered their first loss of the season last Saturday, 125-118, to No. 7 Michigan, during the last meet ever at Ohio State's Peppe Aquatic Center. The Buckeyes will move into a new home facility next season.

Couple that loss with a one-point defeat to the Lions in Columbus that closed out last season, and this is a Buckeye team eager to return home with a win.

The Lions will have to find a different way to win this time. Last season, then-co-captain and senior Todd Minnier won three events en route to the Lions 122-121 victory.

"With Todd you knew you could go into a meet and be pretty sure you're going to win two or three events. We don't have that dominant guy this year, which means, if we're going to have the opportunity to win, it's going to have to be a total team effort," Dorenkott said.

"I think we'll be ready to go," Northrop said. "There's no reason why they should come here for our senior day and beat us."