East Meadow, N.Y. - The Penn State men's swim team's 400-meter freestyle relay took first place at tonight's final competition of the 2001 U.S. Open in Long Island, N.Y.

The team of sophomore Todd Minnier (Avon Lake, Ohio), senior Bob Molettiere (Harleysville, Pa.), junior Eugene Botes (Glen Mills, Pa.) and senior Martin Schierhorn (Zappendorf, Germany) finished with a time of 3:22.07, and before 27 other teams from around the nation. The Lion's second, all freshmen, relay in the same event took 14th overall with members John Lutz (Hershey, Pa.), Josh Cierski (Emmaus, Pa.), Eric Wellington (Alexandria, Virg.), and Daryl Northrop (Verona, N.J.) finishing in the time of 3:30.15.

Junior Brent Creager (Glendale, Ariz.) had the team's highest place individual swim of the evening, taking 15th in the 200-meter butterfly with the time of 2:05.43. Two-time Olympian Tom Malchow won the event with a 1:53.48, breaking both the U.S. Open Record and the Meet Record, which was previously held by Mel Stewert of the University of Tenn. since December, 1994 with a time of 1:54.76.

Schierhorn also touched in 16th place in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 51.57. Teammates Molettiere and Botes also swam the event, finishing 21st with a 51.28 and 22nd with a 51.30 respectively.

Freshman Paul Kirk (Gates Mills, Ohio) finished 21st in the 1500-meter freestyle with a time of 15:54.84. Chris Thompson of Club Wolverine set a new Meet Record in the event, a 14:55.12. The old record, a 15:03.53, was held by Ricardo Monasterio since December, 1998.

Overall meet results can be found at www.usswim.org under U.S.Open.

--LIONS--