UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (July 8, 2004) - Five Penn State swimmers have finished in the Top 30 of their respective events through the first two days of competition at the U.S. Olympics Trials, which are being held through July 14 in Long Beach, Calif.

The trials will be televised live 8 p.m. Friday on NBC and again at 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC. There will be a tape delay broadcast again on July 18th.

A total of 11 Penn State swimmers, seven women and four men, are competing at the trials for a chance to swim for Team U.S.A. at the Summer Olympics in Athens. To send a good luck greeting to the Nittany Lion swimmers, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.

Sophomore Margy Keefe (Cincinnati, Ohio) tops the current Penn State swimmers with an 18th-place showing in the 400-meter freestyle. She swam the event with a time of 4 minutes, 17.50 seconds.

Sophomore Megan Palera (Santa Maria, Calif.) took 23rd in the 400 IM with a time of 4:55.77 and senior Kristen Woodring (Sinking Spring, Pa.) was 29th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.92.

Junior Dan Velez (Germantown, Md.) swam a time of 1:04.25 in the 100 breaststroke, good for a 20th-place finish. Former Penn State swimmer Jaffrey Clark took 17th in the 400 IM with a time of 4:30.75.

Also placing for the Nittany Lions over the last two days have been junior Amberle Biedermann (Colorado Springs, Colo.), who took 69th in the 100 butterfly in 1:04.28. Junior Sarah Haupt (Carlisle, Pa.) was 36th in the 100 backstroke (1:05.12) and senior Courtney Stanchock (Bloomsburg, Pa.) was 34th in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.33).

Competing on Friday will be former Penn Staters Matt Haupt, who is Sarah's brother, and Brent Creager. Both will swim in the men's 200 butterfly preliminaries, hoping for a chance to swim in Friday night's semifinals.

Woodring will compete in Sunday's 200 breaststroke preliminaries, while sophomore Claire Hawley (Barnstable, Mass.) and Keefe will swim in the 800 freestyle preliminaries on Monday.

Clark will also compete in the 200 backstroke preliminaries (Sunday) and the 200 IM preliminaries (Sunday), while Matt Haupt still has the 200 IM preliminaries and 100 butterfly preliminaries (Monday) ahead of him. Creager will take part in the 100 butterfly preliminaries as well.