Four of the five men representing the Penn State swimming and diving team at the NCAA championships competed in the tournament's opening races yesterday, but none made it past the preliminary rounds and into the finals.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Vincent Reydams, Sean Swanepoel, Jason Goldner and Sean Biedermann was the highlight for the Nittany Lions. It finished 17th out of 21 with a time of 1 minute, 19.16 seconds, only one place away from qualifying for the finals.
That time was a season-best for the relay, beating its previous best time of 1:19.67. The men were only 0.51 seconds behind the 16th-place team, Michigan.
"We are really happy with how our relay went," Biedermann said. "It went well, it was really good. Vince swam really well in the 50 free as well."
Reydams is also competing in individual events at the championships for the first time in his career. In the 50-yard freestyle, he tied for 47th out of 50 with a time of 20.40 seconds. He will compete in the 100-yard freestyle with Swanepoel tomorrow.
Biedermann swam in his first of two individual events as well. He finished 45th out of 49 in the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:50.11. He will swim in the 200-yard freestyle tomorrow.
The senior captain was not happy with his performance in the 200 IM, going nearly 2.5 seconds slower than his "B" cut time to qualify for the meet. He hopes to improve.
"Obviously we would have liked to make it back at night," Biedermann said. "But we just want to keep getting stronger and faster everyday so we can get back for finals."
Junior Pat Schirk will race in his first of two events today, the 100-yard backstroke -- he is seeded 18th.
Tomorrow he will race in his second event, the 200-yard backstroke where he is seeded 2nd. Teammates expect him to finish in the top-3, and possibly even win that event. If he finishes in the top-16 he would be Penn State's first All-American in nearly 10 years.
Schirk and Biedermann are the only two Lions swimming today. All five men will compete tomorrow.
The men head into the rest of the championships looking to score points. They will have to get themselves past the prelims and into the finals in order to do so. Last season, the team left the meet with a score of 0, and wants to improve on that.
