UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. (Feb. 23, 2005) - The Penn State men's swimming and diving team will be looking to improve upon last season's seventh-place finish when they get started at the Big Ten Championships 1 p.m. Thursday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The championships will run through Saturday with preliminaries scheduled for 1 p.m., and the finals scheduled for 8 p.m. each day. A link to live results will be available at www.GoPSUsports.com.

Twenty Nittany Lion student-athletes will take to the pool in what will be the beginning of a youth movement for the program.

Nine freshmen will be tested in the conference championships for the first time. Five seniors, including diver Marc Gastaldo (Winslow, Maine), Patrik Johansson (Lund, Sweden), Daryl Northrop (Verona, N.J.), Dustin Thompson (Munster, Ind.) and Mark Zucca (Hudson, Ohio) will show them the way.

Gastaldo returns as a championship place-winner. He took fifth in last year's 3-meter diving competition with a score of 521.95.

Northrop, Johansson and junior Chris Ippoliti (Berwyn, Pa.) helped Penn State's 200-yard freestyle relay team take fifth last season with a time of 1 minute, 20.35 seconds.

Junior Adam Pierce (Conroe, Texas) is also back after finishing fifth on the 1-meter diving board last season.

Richard Kornacki (Simpsonville, S.C.) and Shawn McLin (Sinking Spring, Pa.) are the other two juniors with championship experience who are back in the mix. Sophomores Pat Healy (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Dan Kaiserian (Radnor, Pa.) will compete in their second Big Ten Championships.

Patrick Bukowski (North East, Pa.), Sean Biedermann (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Rob Felty (Hummelstown, Pa.), Bobby Franssen (Conestoga, Pa.), Josh Graham (Newport News, Va.), Richie Kraus (St. Charles, Ill.), Kyle Miranda (Louisville, Colo.), Brad Roth (Kutztown, Pa.) and Sean Swanepoel (KZN, South Africa) will all participate in the Big Ten Championships for the first time.

For more information on Penn State men's and women's swimming and diving, please visit our official athletics website at www.GoPSUsports.com.