Columbus, Ohio-Friday, December 2nd, 2005- The Penn State men¡¯s and women¡¯s swimming and diving teams traveled to Columbus, Ohio today to compete in the Ohio State Invitational, a 3-day swimming and diving event including 12 different universities.

Preliminary events began at 11 a.m. this morning with final events for qualifying swimmers beginning at 6 p.m. this evening. At the conclusion of the day, the Penn State women held second place, while the men were in third.

Six Nittany Lion women scored points in the preliminary events this morning, placing in the top 16 for each event. Junior Nikki Collins (Carmel, Ind.) took 6th place in the 500 freestyle event with a time of 4:54.98. Junior Megan Palera (Santa Maria, Calif.) followed closely in 8th place with a time of 4:55.71. Senior Patty Murphy (Medford, N.J.) also scored points for Penn State with a time of 4:59.26, taking 16th place.

In the 200 IM, freshman Karie Haglund (Marietta, Ga.) finished in 2nd place with a time of 2:04.61. Haglund finished with a time 8 seconds faster than her seeded time for the event. Freshman Abby Hoisington (Leawood, Kan.) finished just seconds behind Haglund, taking 3rd place with a time of 2:05.51. Senior Amberle Biedermann (Colorado Springs, Co,) rounded out Penn State¡¯s strong finish in this event, taking 4th place with a time of 2:06.12.

Five point scoring finishes were had by the Penn State men today during the preliminary events, highlighted by sophomore Sean Biedermann¡¯s (Colorado Springs, Co.) 5th place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 1:52.40. Senior Chris Ippoliti also finished 11th in the event with a time of 1:54.24.

Freshman Ryan DeWeese (Midlothian, Va.) finished highest for Penn State in the 500 freestyle with an 8th place 4:35.61 finish. Freshman David Kraft (Vienna, Va.) finished 15th with a time of 4:39.35 in the event.

In the 50 freestyle Sean Swanepoel had a scoring finish in 15th place with a time of 20.95.

When the swimmers returned for final events this evening Penn State continued to impress. Senior Sarah Haupt (Carlisle, Pa.) led the Nittany Lions to a strong 2nd place finish in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.64, swimming with junior Lauren Preyss (Chagrin Falls, Ohio), freshman Kelly Nelsen (West Chester, Pa.), and junior Genie Cheng (Oak Park, Calif.).

Haupt, Hoisington, Amberle Biedermann and Preyss would command the field and give Penn State its best finish of the day when they took the 400 medley relay with a first place finish of 3:45.90.

Collins returned for the Nittany Lions in strong fashion, taking 4th place in the 500 freestyle finals with a time of 4:52.59. Megan Palera finished 8th with a time of 4:58.41.

In the 200 IM Finals, Haglund repeated her 2nd place finish from earlier in the day with a final time of 2:04.25. Amberle Biedermann finished in the finals with a 5th place finish after a time of 2:05.88.

For the men, Ryan DeWeese finished the day with 6th place in the 500 freestyle finals after an impressive time of 4:35.97. Sean Biedermann finished 6th in 200 IM with a time of 1:52.66.

The Nittany Lions will compete in preliminaries tomorrow at 11 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. The meet will wrap up Sunday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and Finals at 3 p.m.

For more information, please visit www.gopsusports.com.