"Success is never final, and failure is never fatal."

This is the saying that Penn State swimming and diving coach Bill Dorenkott thought was most appropriate to tell his team after Saturday's meet.

The men's team traveled to Rutgers and came away with a 136-107 victory. Although it was a good win for the team, Dorenkott wanted to make sure that the men knew there is still a lot to be done to call them successful. The meet at Rutgers was just another step to the final goal of success at the Big Ten Championship.

"Rutgers is a good team," Dorenkott said. "They're one of two or three of the best teams in the Big East. It has been a competitive meet for the past four five years that we've been swimming. I enjoy swimming against Rutgers because I have a lot of respect for their staff and their team."

The 21st-ranked Nittany Lions were able to come away with a first-place finish in the 400-medley relay, which has been one of their strongest events this season. Freshman Pat Schirk swam his leg of the relay in less than fifty seconds for the first time of his career.

Another freshman that stepped up this weekend was David Kraft in the 1,000-meter freestyle. Dorenkott was very proud to see Kraft compete and fight for a personal best time.

"That was an excellent swim for him," Dorenkott said. "He's a fighter. He was down with about 200 yards left in the race and came back to beat the kid by a full body length and that was a lifetime best for him."

The freshman class and the rest of the team are continuously improving, and they have full intentions on working on getting better.

This past week was the last full week the team will have to train for the next couple of weeks.

Dorenkott made sure that the team took full advantage of its full week of practice. The important thing is that the men will be fully prepared for the upcoming meets. The team will be facing Notre Dame and Ohio State in back-to-back weekends.

"They're going to be really tough opponents," senior co-captain Richard Kornacki said.

Both teams are teams that swim real well within the season and don't take any dual meets lightly. Obviously both teams are Penn State rivals as well. It's going to be some very tough meets."

These next two weeks are going to be difficult due to the traveling, short practice week and challenging opponents. Attitudes and focus must remain at a high level.

"We need to improve if we want to be competitive against Notre Dame this weekend and Ohio State the following weekend, and certainly at the Big Tens and NCAAs," Dorenkott said.

The team will head to Notre Dame on Thursday for this weekend's two-day meet, with practice not being as intense as it was last week.

This is the time to make sure the team is joined together with a common goal of going into every meet and competing at the highest level possible.