Lions Dominate Penn State Altoona in AMCC Action

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team shared the wealth  in a 124-76 victory over Penn State Altoona on Friday night at the Steubenville High School hosted by Franciscan.

The Lions won eight individual events, all by different swimmers, while capturing the opening 200 medley relay for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) dual-meet victory.

In the first nine events, Behrend took first and second place in six of them. Clay Altemose (Apollo, PA/Apollo-Ridge), Dan Simon (Harrison City, PA/Penn Trafford), Justin Pritchard (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) and Andrew J.N. Opalewski (Slippery Rock, PA/Slippery Rock) started the meet with first in the 200 medley relay in 1:41.32.

The second team of Ryan Mitcheltree (Moon Township, PA/Moon), Steve Torre (McDonald, PA/South Fayette), Justin Seeley (North East, PA/North East) and Zach Orosz (Erie, PA/McDowell) was runner up with a time of 1:51.22.

In the next event, Brian Mong (Franklin, PA/Franklin) won the 1000 free in 10:44.97and Dan Zora (Upper St. Clair, PA/Upper St. Clair) finished in 11:38.22 for second place.

Freshman Drew Werner (Hampton, PA/Hampton) was first in the 200 free (1:55.31) and Ty Elder (Brentwood, CA/Heritage) took third in 2:01.63. Gabe Romano (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) then won the 50 free (23.44) before three swimmers swept the 200 IM. Javier Solivan (San Juan, Puerto Rico/UHS) led a 1-2-3 finish with a time of 2:03.65. Peirce was second (2:10.82) and Torre placed third (2:13.21).

In addition to swimming in the first-place relay, Altemose earned a first of his own in the 100 fly touching in 54.12. Mitcheltree followed in second with a time of 57.70. In the 100 free, Opalewski and Myers were first and second, respectively. Opalewski hit the wall in 52.02 and Matt Myers (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) was close second in 52.40.

Behrend also got a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 backstroke. Simon led with a time of 55.00 and Romano was second in 59.43. Eric Lasher (Edinboro, PA/General McLane) completed the trio in third with a time of 1:00.74.

In the 1m diving event, Andrew Neder (Fairview, PA/Fairview) won with a score of 152.05.

The Lions return to action on Saturday at Baldwin Wallace. Meet begins at 1 p.m.