UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (July 9, 2004) - Former Penn State swimmer Matt Haupt qualified for Friday night's 200-meter butterfly semifinals by finishing seventh in the preliminaries earlier in the day at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Long Beach, Calif.

Haupt, who is representing Big Cat Aquatics Club, swam the event in 2 minutes, 00.01 seconds to smash his U.S. Trials qualifying time of 2.01.01 by a full second.

Tonight's U.S. Swim Trials will be televised live at 8 p.m. on NBC. Sunday's trials will also be televised live 8 p.m. on NBC.

The top 16 swimmers in the 200 butterfly preliminaries qualified for tonight's semifinals. The top eight finishers tonight will compete in the finals on Saturday evening.

Haupt served as a Penn State volunteer assistant coach during the 2003-04 season, while training for the Olympic Trials. He became the sixth current or former Nittany Lion swimmer to finish in the Top 30 of their respective events during the first three days of the trials.

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.

For more information on Penn State swimming and diving, please visit our official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com.