March 29, 2008

Photo Gallery 

Swimming World Magazine Recap and Free On Demand Video of the Finals
(Championship final is the second race in the video clip. Pat Schirk is in lane 4)

Big Ten Network Recap

Complete NCAA Championships Results (pdf)

Federal Way, Wash. - Pat Schirk became the first individual NCAA national champion in men's or women's swimming on Saturday night as he swam to the national title in the 200 backstroke on the final night of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. The junior broke his own school record that he set earlier this year with a time of 1:40.22 in the finals.

As a team, Penn State finished tied for 23rd with Hawaii with 33 points, the highest finish and the most points scored at NCAA's since 2002, when the Nittany Lions finished 15th with 54 points. Arizona won the meet with 500.5 total points.

Schirk, a two-time All-American now at this year's championships after his sixth place finish in the 100 back last night, also finished first in the morning prelims this morning in a time of 1:41.02. The Pottstown, Pa. native is now the first-ever national champion in the history of the swimming program at Penn State. The men's program is in its 41st year of existence after being reinstated in 1968. The program also was run from 1936-44 and 1947-51 before being disbanded, not to return until 1968.

Schirk was not the only Penn Stater to pick up points on Saturday, however, as the 400 freestyle relay team of Vincent Reydams, Sean Swanepoel, Sean Biedermann and Jason Goldner finished 16th in the consolation finals of that event in a time of 2:57.99. The team finished 15th in the prelims in a time of 2:56.05. The finish enabled that quartet to earn honorable mention All-American honors. For each, it was the first such honor of their careers. The honorable mention All-American status is the first for a Penn State relay team since 2002, when Penn State had three honorable mention All-American relay teams.

Also on Saturday, both Reydams and Swanepoel competed individually in the 100 free but neither made it out of prelims as both were disqualified for false starts. Both rebounded, however, to help the 400 free relay team in both the prelims and the finals.

The NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, including Schirk's finals swim in the 200 back, will be condensed into an hour-and-a-half show that can be seen on tape delay on ESPN2 next Thursday, April 3 at 2:00 p.m.

Quotes From 200 Backstroke NCAA Champion Patrick Schirk - Penn State

On winning Penn State's first ever swimming national championship
"It feels pretty good. I think that's the first National Championship ever for Penn State. I just found that out last night too. I was told I'd be the first All-American also in the 65 years that Penn State has had [swimming]. It feels great."

On his race strategy
"The strategy was that I just needed to go out fast and put myself in the opportunity to swim well and make things happen. I was not trying to think about what the rest of my field was doing. If I start doing that I psych myself out. I try to just keep my own race plan going on. Today I was just trying to put it out on the line and hold on."

On his coach's [Bill Dorenkott] reaction
"My coach was pretty happy. I think my coach was just as nervous as I was. It feels good to have that race over with."

On growing up a Penn State fan and the meaning of winning this title for PSU
"I grew up a Penn State fan all my life, being from Pennsylvania. All my family is Penn State alumni so it feels great to start to make the first steps to build a tradition at Penn State that we never really had before. So it feels great to be part of a first step in the direction of building a tradition like a Michigan or Texas."