Four Records Drop at Blue Devil Invite

FREDONIA, NY – The Penn State Behrend men's and women's swimming and diving team broke four records in just six events on the first night of the Fredonia State Blue Devil Invite on Friday.

After day one of three, the men sit in second place with 129.5 points and the women are in seventh place with 64 points.  Collectively, three team records fell and one pool record dropped for the Lions.

Rachael Ragen broke the program record in the 50 free during the preliminaries with a time of 24.80. During the finals, she touched in 24.81 to take second place. Ragen took nearly a second off her seeded time of 25.64.

On the men's side, Brian Mong set the school mark in the 1650 free. He broke the five-year old record of 17:21.05 with a new time of 17:19.42 to take second overall.

Steve Torre not only won the 400 IM and earning Behrend 20 points, he reset the program record with a time of 4:19.33 which is an outstanding nine seconds off his best time this season of 4:28.03.

The final record was set by the 800 free relay team of Brendan Lacey, Hunter Backenstose,  Josh Weaver and Mong. The group clocked in with a new time of 7:07.89.

Lacey also participated in the 50 free and took fourth with a time of 22.49. Another good performance came by Eric Peirce in the 400 IM. He came in sixth place to collect 13 points with a time of 4:35.14.

For the women, Katie Van Epps touched first for Behrend and sixth overall in the 400 IM (5:04.28). She then joined Ragen, Anne Lawrence and Hilary MacManus for the 800 free relay for third place. They touched in 8:26.62 to earn half the points for the night.

The Lions return to the Fredonia State pool tomorrow for day two of the Blue Devil Invite. Swimming begins at 10 a.m. with finals at 4 p.m.