Swimming: Mountaineers Host Penn State
October 21, 2008 01:08 PM | General
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
October 21, 2008
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| Vic Riggs |
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – The West Virginia University men’s and women’s swimming and diving team will host rival Penn State in dual meets at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the WVU Natatorium.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to race one of the better programs in our area and certainly in the NCAA,” Riggs says. “We’re looking forward to the challenge that they present.”
The Mountaineers had a successful opening weekend last on Oct. 11 at Marshall. The men competed and won both of their meets. They defeated East Carolina, 151-137 and Xavier, 235-43. The men earned ten first-place finishes and were led by seniors Michael Walker and Pablo Marmolejo.
Kayla Andrews led the women to a 2-1 performance as they defeated Marshall, 171-124 and Xavier, 192-46. The however lost to ECU 171-119. Andrews had the swim of the meet in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.10. The women also received great swims from Morgan Callaway, Lindsey Largo and Isabel Perez.
“We’re obviously looking to improve from our meet against Marshall, ECU and Xavier,” Riggs says. “It’s early in the dual meet season and we will be looking at each meet individually and working on the areas we feel we need to improve on.”
This will be Penn State’s first regular season meet of the 2008-09 season. The Nittany Lions have a new coach in John Hargis who will handle duties on both the men’s and women’s side. Penn State returns Pat Schirk who was the 200 backstroke national champion at the NCAA Championships. The women return Kelly Nelson who finished in sixth at the NCAA Championships in the 200 butterfly.
The Penn State men’s team finished with an 8-4 record last year and finished eighth at the Big Ten Championships, while the women went a perfect 11-0 and finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships.
Last year the Nittany Lions defeated the WVU men 194-106 and the women 227-73. Kayla Andrews led the Mountaineers to wins in the 50 and 100 yard free events with times of 26.37 and 50.32.
