Men's Swimming and Diving Place First at Blue Devil's Invitational
Penn State Behrend's swimming and diving team made a very impressive showing
this past weekend at the Fredonia State Blue Devil's Invitational. The
men finished first out of six teams with a total score of 789 points, while
the women finished a close fourth out of six with a score of 372 points.
The men had a stellar performance, having 26 swimmers with
top ten performances. The squad also set five team records and three
records for the Fredonia pool. The men took first place in the 200 and
400 yard freestyle relay, setting new team records in each. Both relay
teams consisted of seniors Anthony Spoto (Birmingham, MI/Birmingham-Seaholm)
and Jason Hall (Lower Burrell/Burrell), as well as Chris Graves
(McMurray/Peters Township) and Pat Allen (Houston, TX /Jersey Village).
Senior Dustin Fairchild (Corry/Corry) took first in the 200 yard breast,
while teammate Joe Reese (Boalsburg/State College) won the 100 yard fly with
a time of 53.78, setting a new team record.
The women also did their share of record breaking. Freshmen diver
Krystal Kovach (Pittsburgh/Chartiers Valley) broke the one-meter and
three-meter diving records for 11 dives. On the one-meter board,
Kovach finished sixth overall with 322.00 points while on the three-meter,
she took in 263 points for the eighth spot.
Sophomore Sara Breese (West Springfield/Northwestern) took
first place in the 50 free with a time of 25.46 to help her team to the
fourth place finish. The women's 200 and 400 yard freestyle relay
teams both settled for third place finishes.
On Friday, January 18 the squad
will take on the Cougars from Chatham University. Competition is set
to begin at 6:00 p.m. The next day the team will travel to Frostburg
for a tri-meet against Penn State Altoona at 2:00 p.m. These three
teams have battled for the top spot in the AMCC since the beginning of the
program in 2006. Currently, the Behrend Lions lead in both the men's
and women's standings.