Austin, Texas¨C Penn State¡¯s #13 ranked women¡¯s swim team opened with several fine performances during the preliminary rounds of the first day of competition at the NCAA National Championships in Austin, Texas. The Nittany Lions will have two relays and one individual swimmer compete in the consolation finals. The top eight in the prelims make the championship final and the next eight make the consolation final.

Perhaps the highlight of the morning prelims was turned in by sophomore Sally Anderson (Somerset, N.J.), who swam a personal best by over three seconds with a time of 4:45.71. Her time broke the school record of 4:46.27 set by her sister Katie Anderson. Anderson swam the 12th fastest time and earned a berth in the consolation final. Her seed coming into the meet was 33rd.

The first event of the NCAA Championships saw the Nittany Lions place tenth in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Deirdre Dlugonski (Washington, Pa.), Piper Chamberlin (Grand Junction, Colo.), Kristin Weinhold (Durham, N.C.) and Katie Hostetler (Chambersburg, Pa.) swam a time of 1:38.58, which was over a second off their season best, but still good enough to qualify them for tonight¡¯s consolation final.

The 400-yard medley relay team of Katie Bruzda (Latrobe, Pa.), Kristen Woodring (Sinking Spring, Pa.), Corrie Clark (Malvern, Pa.) and Deirdre Dlugonski qualified for the consolation finals with a 10th place finish. They swam a time of 3:40.45.

Both Corrie Clark and Erin Mulshenock (New Castle, Del.) competed in the 200-yard individual medley. Clark missed making the consolation final by one place with a 17th place finish, but did swim a season best time of 2:00.83. Mulshenock placed 22nd with a time of 2:01.62.

All four members of Penn State¡¯s 200 free relay also competed in the 50-yard freestyle. Hostetler was the highest finisher in 52nd with a time of 23.41. Dlugonski placed 58th in 23.52, Weinhold finished 61st in 23.57, and Chamberlin placed 67th in 23.84.

Final round action will begin tonight at 7:00 p.m. (8:00 ET).

Penn State Quotes:
Head Coach Bill Dorenkott:

On Sally Anderson¡¯s performance:

Sally had a breakthrough performance. That was an outstanding effort, was one of the best back halves in the field and is a credit to her training this year. It is very rewarding to see that type of performance.

On having two relays in the consolations:

The difficult part about a meet like this is we come in with high expectations, but the fact that we are going into finals seeded tenth in both relays. Now we have to do something with that. I think in both cases we are better than we¡¯ve shown and we will have to get better with each session. I am looking to getting stronger as each day goes on. Overall impressions of opening prelims:

It is a solid start to the meet and I am hoping we are going to have more special performances like Sally¡¯s. It is going to take a little something extra to get those performances.

Deirdre Dlugonski:

On her performance:

I am happy, but I can improve. It was a good start to the meet and I am looking forward to the next few days.

--LIONS--