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Penn State Cracks Navy

Penn State Press Release

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Led in part by seniors swimming and diving for the final time in McCoy Natatorium, Penn State swept Navy in a dual meet Saturday afternoon, with the women earning a 199-99 victory and the men a 173-127 victory.

The Penn State men and women improved to 3-3 and 3-4, respectively, in dual meets, while both Navy teams slipped to 7-2.

Senior Shane Ryan (Havertown, Pa.) won three individual events for the men, breaking his own pool record in the 100 freestyle by touching in 42.99 seconds, and he rallied the 400 freestyle relay team to a come-from-behind victory on the final leg to close out the meet. Freshman Billy Beard (Pottstown, Pa.), senior Bob Bantley (Maple Glen, Pa.) and freshman Austin Wilson trailed Navy’s team by exactly eight-tenths of a second after three legs of the 400 free relay, but Ryan regained the lead by 0.18 seconds after 50 yards and ultimately out swam Navy’s anchor leg by exactly two seconds to win the race.  His other individual event wins included the 50 free in 19.76 seconds – four-hundreths of a second shy of his own pool record set last week - and the 100 fly in 48.01.

Four Nittany Lion women’s swimmers won multiple events, including seniors Casey Francis (East Meadow, N.Y.) and Katie Saloky (Bloomsburg, Pa.)

Senior Mackenzie Cornell (Germantown, Md.) swept the women’s diving events, highlighted by a personal best score of 318.22 in the 3-meter. Christina Crowell (Bedford Hills, N.Y.) and McKayla Mawn (Kennett Square, Pa.) grabbed the second (256.58) and third (250.80) for maximum team points in the event, while Cornell also won the 1-meter with a score of 272.39. Sophomore Hector Garcia Boissier (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) won the 3-meter (397.87) and 1-meter (361.27) on the men’s side, and classmate Jack Crow (Bethesda, Md.) was second to him in the 3-meter (338.92).

The women were dominant from the start, winning the opening 200 medley relay followed by a 1-2-3 Nittany Lion sweep of the 1000 freestyle led Francis in a personal best 9:48.93. Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) finished second in 10:04.19 and freshman Amber Glenn (Ventor, N.J.) was third in (10:05.44). Francis also won the 500 free in 4:52.07 to lead a sweep of the top four spots, and was followed in the scoring positions by classmate Katelyn Sowinski (Severna Park, Md.), who touched second in 4:57.32, and freshman Cara Treble (Massapequa, N.Y.) who touched third in 4:58.41. Sowinski also claimed the 200 fly in an NCAA B-cut of 1:58.94.

Saloky won the 50 free in 22.92, with Katrina Kuhn (Piscataway, N.J.) following in second (23.97), and Saloky also won the 100 fly in 54.76. Saloky, Francis, Sowinski and senior Megan Wujciak (Livingston, N.J.)  teamed up for the 400 free relay to conclude the meet, and placed first officially in 3:25.69.

Junior Tommie Dillione (Newtown, Pa.) won both the 100 (51.27) and 200 (1:49.37) freestyles, leading a sweep of the top five spots in the 200. Freshman Siena Salvaggio (Allentown, Pa.) placed second to Dillione in both the 100 (51.65) and 200 (1:50.17), while Wujciak rounded out the top three in the 200 free (1:50.57).

Niki Price joined Dillione as a multiple event winner touching first in the 100 (56.71) and 200 (2:00.98) backstrokes.

Underclassmen helped Ryan lead the men’s team, led by reigning Big Ten Men’s Freshman of the Week Kaelan Freund (Lethbridge, Alberta), who matched Ryan’s three individual wins and relay win with a sweep of the 100 (55.10) and 200 (2:02.17) breaststrokes and a win in the 200 IM (1:50.60). Freund also teamed up with classmate and countryman Liam Veregin (Ottawa, Ontario), sophomore Tomer Zamir (Gesher Haziv, Israel) and Bantley to win the day’s opening 200 medley relay in 1:29.48.

Zamir (49.27) and Veregin (49.34) also finished 1-2 in the 100 backstroke, and Veregin won the 200 back in 1:49.73 and was followed by sophomore Nathaniel Bledsoe (Carmel, Ind.) in 1:50.42.

Sophomore John Nunez (Hackensack, N.J.) won one of the day’s most exciting races, hanging on in the 500 free to touch first in 4:35.78 for a margin of victory of just 0.21 seconds over the second-place Navy finisher.

Penn State will next host the Penn State Zone A Diving Invitational Saturday and Sunday, Jan 28-29. The entire team will be back in action the following week at Villanova, Feb. 3.

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