State College, Pa; Dec. 2, 2000-- The No. 20 Penn State men's swimming and diving team currently stands in first place of the 2000 Nittany Lion Invitational. Penn State is looking for their fourth consecutive Nittany Lion Invitational title. Penn State has accumulated 771 points through the 14 events. The University of Maryland-Baltimore County stands in second with 657. The Lions' team has split for the weekend with half of the swimmers participating in the Princeton Invitational in Princeton, N.J., and the rest of the swimmers as well as the full compliment of divers hosting the Nittany Lion Invitation at the McCoy Natatorium.

Penn State placed first in five of Saturday's eight events. The 200 Medley relay team of Josh Weaver (York, Pa.), Mike Laskowski (Redmond, Wash.), Chris Bagley (Philadelphia, Pa.), and Martin Schierhorn (Zappendorf, Germany) took first place with a time of 1:34.49. Jaffrey Clark (Malvern, Pa.) and Steve Hodgins (Holmdel, N.J.) grabbed the top two spots in the 400 Individual Medley with times of 4:01.16 and 4:02.00 respectively. Todd Minnier (Avon Lake, Ohio) touched the wall first in the 100 Butterfly in 49.67 seconds. Josh Weaver placed first in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 50.21. Penn State's divers offered another impressive performance by sweeping the diving competition for the second consecutive day. Steve Bohner (Lansdale, Pa.) took first place in the three meter competition with a score of 329.90. Jeff Harrison (Baltimore, Md.) finished in second with 300.90 points. Rounding out the trio was Chris Alderman (Arlington, Va.) with a score of 292.50.

The three day competition will conclude Sunday, December 3, with prelims set to start at 9:00 a.m. and finals scheduled for 5:00 p.m. For complete results, please visit www.GoPSUSports.com.

 Team Rankings (through 28 events) 1. Penn State 771 2. UMBC 657 3. St. Bonaventure 595.50 4. University of Buffalo 353.50