UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Mar. 18, 2004) - The Penn State women's swimming and diving team's 400-meter medley relay team finished fourth at the NCAA Championships to help the Nittany Lions to a 14th-place standing after the first day of the women's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on the campus of Texas A&M.

Defending national champion, Auburn, and Georgia lead the championships with scores of 188 and 135 for first and second-place, respectively. The Nittany Lions have 32 points after placing in the relay and 400 freestyle.

Penn State has its two strongest days in the pool yet to come as the Nittany Lions will have 12 different student-athletes competing in 12 of the final 15 events. The championships will continue with preliminaries at 12 p.m. Friday. The finals will begin at 8 p.m. A link to results can be found at www.GoPSUsports.com.

Sophomore Sarah Haupt (Carlisle, Pa.), senior Kristen Woodring (Sinking Spring, Pa.), sophomore Amberle Biedermann (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and junior Deirdre Dlugonski (Washington, Pa.) swam the 400 medley relay with a time of 4:01.59. They also swam the prelimaries round with the fourth-best time of 4:01.48. Georgia won the event with an NCAA and US Open record time of 3:56.48.

Freshman Margy Keefe (Cincinnati, Ohio) became an honorable mention All-American by finishing 15th in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:11.19. She qualified for the finals after swimming the 400 freestyle in 4:10.16 in the preliminaries.

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


Team Scores After Day 1:
1) AUBURN, 188; 2) GEORGIA, 135; 3) ARIZONA, 86; 4) FLORIDA, 84; 5) STANFORD, 82; 6) UCLA, 75; 7) TEXAS, 73; 8) CALIFORNIA, 67; 9) SOUTH CAROLINA, 52.5; 10) MICHIGAN, 49; 10) WISCONSIN, 49; 12) SOUTHERN CAL, 37; 13) INDIANA, 36.5; 14) PENN STATE, 32; 15) ARIZONA STATE, 26; 16) TEXAS A&M, 25.5; 17) NOTRE DAME, 25; 18) ALABAMA, 23; 18) FLORIDA STATE, 23; 20) SOUTHERN METHOD, 14; 21) LOUISIANA STATE, 13.5; 22) HAWAII, 12; 23) VILLANOVA, 6; 23) RICHMOND, 6; 23) MARYLAND, 6; 26) TENNESSEE, 5; 27) PACIFIC (CAL), 4; 28) ARKANSAS, 3; 29) VIRGINIA, 1; 29) BROWN, 1;

EVENT: 2 WOMEN's 400 Meter Freestyle
NCAA Record: 4:04.09 Christina Teuscher Columbia 2000
World Record: 3:59.53 Lindsay Benko USA 2003
American Record: 3:59.53 Lindsay Benko USA 2003
> US Open Record: 4:01.36 Sanchiko Yamada JPN 2004 QUALIFYING FOR "A" Cut: 4:45.46
QUALIFYING FOR This Meet: 4:48.00
RESULTS of FINALS
1) MASON, EMILY, ARIZONA, 4:01.58 (NCAA Record); 2) KELLER, KALYN, SOUTHERN CAL., 4:02.21; 3) McLARTY, SARA, FLORIDA, 4:05.64; 4) CHANDLER, ASHLEY, CALIFORNIA, 4:05.89; 5) BINDER, ADRIENNE, AUBURN, 4:07.71; 6) PIPER, CARLY, WISCONSIN, 4:08.27; 7) CONWAY, LAURA, GEORGIA, 4:08.57; 8) GILLIAM, SUSAN, MICHIGAN, 4:10.67
CONSOLATION FINAL
9) HENTZEN, MORGAN, STANFORD, 4:07.21; 9) FENN, EMILY CLARE, MICHIGAN, 4:07.21; 11) KOCH, BECKY, VILLANOVA, 4:07.81; 12) LEE, GEORGINA, SOUTHERN METHOD., 4:09.43; 13) NELSON, KATIE, UCLA, 4:09.55; 14) GORLESKY, ERIN, INDIANA, 4:10.65; 15) KEEFE, MARGARET, PENN STATE, 4:11.19; 16) KELLY, KIMI, VIRGINIA, 4:14.62.

EVENT: 6 WOMEN's 400 Meter Medley Relay
NCAA Record: 3:57.46 Georgia 2000
World Record: 3:55.78 SWE 2002
American Record: 3:57.17 USA 2002
US Open Record: 3:57.46 Georgia 2000
RESULTS of FINALS
1) GEORGIA, 3:56.48 (NCAA Record, US Open Record); 2) STANFORD; 3) ARIZONA; 4) PENN STATE, 4:01.59 (HAUPT, SARAH; WOODRING, KRISTEN; BIEDERMANN, AMBERLE; DLUGONSKI, DEIRDRE); 5) AUBURN; 6) TEXAS; 7) CALIFORNIA; 8) MICHIGAN.
CONSOLATION FINAL
9) UCLA; 10) FLORIDA; 11) WISCONSIN; 12) FLORIDA STATE; 13) INDIANA; 14) MARYLAND; 15) ARIZONA STATE; 16) PACIFIC (CALIFORNIA).