Swimming: Mountaineers Travel to Penn State
October 23, 2009 10:00 AM | General
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
October 23, 2009
MEET NOTES
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| Jared Goldthorpe |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University swimming and diving teams will continue their season at Penn State on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m. The men will be facing Penn State in a dual meet, while the women will swim against Penn State and Colgate in a double-dual meet.
“For the men, it’s our first opportunity to race this season,” coach Vic Riggs says. “We’ve had two exhibition meets, but it’s always good to have your first competition and with Penn State and the caliber of swimming and the program that they have, it’ll give us a real good opportunity to step up and see what we can do.”
In the women's opener against Marshall, the Mountaineers won 12 of 13 events, while senior Ashley Malik broke the school and pool record on the 1-meter board. Senior Kayla Andrews and freshman Rachael Burnett each finished with two wins.
The men swam in an exhibition meet with freshman Jared Goldthorpe breaking a pool record in the 200 back and Matt O'Neill breaking the 3-meter board school record.
“The women raced last weekend against Marshall and we saw some good things,” Riggs says. “This weekend we’ll have a very big challenge in front of us, how we match up with them (Penn State) in-season. I know both programs are working very hard right now and we’ll have to see how we do.”
The Mountaineers last saw Penn State in the fall of 2008 in Morgantown. The Nittany Lions men and women both won the dual meets by scores of 145-93 and 145-84, respectively.
This will be the first time in program history that West Virginia has faced Colgate in swimming.
Penn State opened its season at St. Bonaventure where the men and women both took the sweep. The Nittany Lion men won eight events with Brian Alden leading the way with two individual wins and a third on the 200 freestyle relay squad. The women won 12 of the 13 events on the day and finished 1-2-3 in five different events.
This is Colgate’s first meet of the season. The Raiders were just voted preseason favorites for the Patriot League and finished the 2008-09 campaign with a 10-0 record.
