West Virginia vs. Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, October 22. THE Penn State men's swimming & diving team raced out to a lead and never looked back in a season-opening 143-98 thrashing of West Virginia on Saturday at McCoy Natatorium.

The Nittany Lions (1-0) took the top two spots in the opening 200 medley relay to begin the meet with a 15-2 lead. Nate Savoy (Reading, Pa.) led the backstroke leg with a 23.13 before Mitch Scherer (Pottstown, Pa.), Sean Grier (Hummelstown, Pa.) and Shane Austin (Kennett Square, Pa.) capped off a 1:30.65 winning time. The team of Jeff Gomez (Morristown, N.J.), James Wilson (Nottingham, Pa.), Scott Marino (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Jeff Young (Hershey, Pa.) finished second in a time of 1:32.87.

The Penn State dominance continued into the 1,000 free with freshmen Nick Ankosko (East Brunswick, N.J.) and Kurt Ratcliff (Centreville, Va.) going 1-2 in times of 9:33.96 and 9:37.73.

After West Virginia captured a couple successive wins in the 200 free and 50 free, Chris Cipolla (South River, N.J.) led a Nittany Lion sweep of the 400 IM (4:04.44), followed by Jonathan Ekstrom (Silver Spring, Md.; 4:05.00) and Marino (4:06.02).

WVU took top honors in the 200 fly as Alden captured victory in the 100 freestyle in a time of 45.53. That performance paved the way for Savoy's second win in the 200 back (1:49.99) followed by Gomez (1:50.52).

Penn State swept another event, this time the 200 breaststroke led by Cipolla (2:06.19), Scherer (2:07.02) and Ekstrom (2:09.93).

The Nittany Lion wins didn't stop in the pool, however, as Jordan Harris (Philipsburg, Pa.) swept the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard diving competitions. Harris posted a score of 322.20 in the 1-meter and bested that mark in the 3-meter with a strong 323.47.

Penn State improved to 13-16 all-time against the Mountaineers and takes next week off from competition. The Nittany Lions will venture south for a challenging set of duals at Auburn (Nov. 4 at 5:00 p.m. ET) and Georgia Tech (Nov. 5 at 11 a.m.).

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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