Penn State Splits With West Virginia: No. 18 Women Win 146.5-96.5, Men Fall 137-104

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia, October 19. THE No. 18 Penn State women's swimming and diving team picked up a 146.5-96.5 win over West Virginia on Thursday while the Nittany Lion men fell to the Mountaineers by a 137-104 score in what was the season-opening meet for both squads.

The women claimed eight first-place finishes on the afternoon while the men had three individual wins. There were 13 events contested for both the men and women. Senior diver Mike Alderman put up an NCAA Zone qualifying score in the one-meter.

In the first non-relay event of the afternoon, the Nittany Lion women claimed the first three finishers in the 1000 freestyle as 2006 All-American Nikki Collins won the event in 10:05.47. She was followed by Kaitlin O'Brien in second place and Jessica Barnes in third. Megan Palera also finished sixth.

Senior Genie Cheng picked up a first place finish in the 50 freestyle, winning in 24.47. The Nittany Lions claimed three of the top four spots in the 200 IM, which included winner Abby Hoisington, who came in at 2:05.23. She was followed by freshman Lyndsey Smith in second while newcomer Clare Clemens placed fourth.

Sophomore Karie Haglund won the 200 butterfly, swimming an NCAA provisional time of 2:01.45, over a full second under the 'B' standard. She was followed in second and third place by teammates Kailey Morris and Kelly Nelson.

Claire Hawley, competing in her first collegiate meet in nearly two years after redshirting last year, won the 500 freestyle in her first meet back. Megan Palera placed third in that event. The 400 freestyle relay team of Haglund, Barnes, Molly Crispell, and Sarah Baker won that event in a time of 3:28.89.

In other events, the Nittany Lions took third through fifth place in the 200 freestyle in Lindsey DeForrest, Sarah Baker, and Jaime Keily, respectively. In the 100 freestyle, Michelle Myers, Crispell, and Cheng finished second through fourth, Erin Morris and Barnes finished second and third in the 200 backstroke, and Penn State claimed second through fifth place in the 200 breaststroke in Clemens, Lyndsey Smith, O'Brien, and Hoisington.

On the diving team, Courtney Adlam and Kimberlee Peifer placed first or second in both the one and three-meter events. Adlam won the three-meter with a 266.20 score while Peifer was second at 241.80.

They reversed positions in the one-meter as Peifer just missed the NCAA Zone qualifying standard of 265 as she compiled a 262.20 to win the event. She was followed by Adlam in second at 248.55.

On the men's side, Alderman won both the one and three-meter events, picking up an NCAA Zone A qualifying score of 319.80 in the one-meter, well above the 300 standard for qualifying. He also won the three-meter with a 282.80. In both events, he was followed by Josh Myers and Pat Bukowski in second and third place, respectively.

"We weren't up against the type of competition we will face later in the year and they have a new diving coach and are trying to break in some rookies," said diving coach Craig Brown. "But this meet gave us a good barometer of where we are and I was happy with how we did. I thought we did a good job of getting the job done."

David Kraft claimed Penn State's other win on the men's side, claiming first in the 1000 freestyle at 9:31.07. Colin Quirk, Ben Ryan, and Dito Calderon claimed third through fifth place.

Sean Biedermann and Jon Cochrane finished second and third, respectively, in the 200 free while Dan Kaiserian and Sean Swanepoel also claimed second and third in the 50 free. Tim Williams finished second in the 200 butterfly at 1:52.12. The Nittany Lions also claimed third through sixth in the 100 free in Kaiserian, Swanepoel, Basil Kaaki, and Biedermann. They also claimed second through fifth in the 500 free in Ryan, Kraft, Calderon, and Chris Sullivan. The 400 freestyle relay team of Kaiserian, Biedermann, Vincent Reydams, and Swanepoel finished second.

"I'm not ecstatic with the results but I'm not overly disappointed either," said head swimming coach Bill Dorenkott. "I thought we could have been a bit sharper in a few of the events and would like to see us win more of the close races. But we certainly have a long way to go and we have a good foundation to build from. This meet just helps us assess where we are training-wise and to get a feel for our strengths and weaknesses and show us where we need to go to get better."

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