STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The #20 Penn State men's swim team will travel to Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. for the 2002 Big Ten Championship. The Nittany Lions have placed among the top three teams the last four years. And will vie to do the same this year.

Penn State enters the championship as the fourth highest ranked team, behind #6 Minnesota, #10 Michigan and #16 Wisconsin. Penn State has defeated #21 Purdue and lost to Michigan in Big Ten dual meet action.

Returning championship points scoring swimmers include seniors Bob Molettiere (Harleysville, Pa.) and Martin Schierhorn (Zappendorf, Germany), junior Eugene Botes (Glen Mills, Pa.), and sophomore Todd Minnier (Avon Lake, Ohio). Molettiere, Botes, and Minnier were all members of last year's Big Ten 400 freestyle relay first place finish, and Molettiere and Botes each had individual titles in the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly, respectively. Schierhorn had top ten finishes at last year's Big Tens in the 1650, 500, and 200 freestyles.

The Nittany Lions have several swimmers and relays ranked among the conference elite. Molettiere and Botes currently rank third and fourth in the 50 free, while Botes also ranks second in the 100 free. The Nittany Lions have two relays ranked in the top five. Both the 400 free relay and the 800 free relay are ranked fourth.

The meet is set to begin on Thursday, February 28 at 12:00 p.m. and will conclude Saturday, March 2.

Live results will be available on www.bigten.org or www.iuhoosiers.com. Results will also be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of each session at www.gopsusports.com.

For full team notes [in PDF format] click here.