FREDONIA, NY – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team is in third place with 102.5 points after day one of the Fredonia Blue Devil Invitational Friday night.
The Lions trail Wheeling Jesuit in first place (181) and Allegheny in second (116.5) with just four events under their belts.
Nick Kost (Ashburn, VA/Stone Bridge) led Behrend in the 200 IM. He finished fifth with a time of 2:01.56. Ryan Elsey (Hermitage, PA/Hickory) picked up 5.5 points for coming in tied for 11th place (2:05.05) in the 200 IM.
The Lions had three swimmers in the Top 16 in the 50 free. Matt Myers (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley), Jake Ekas (Erie, PA/McDowell), Ty Elder (Brentwood, CA/Heritage) all finished in .12 seconds within each other. Myers led with a time of 23.05 for 10th, while Ekas came in 11th (23.08) and Elder took 12th in 23.17.
Senior Ryan Mitcheltree (Moon Township, PA/Moon) earned bronze in the 1650 freestyle, touching in third with a time of 17:17.43. Lloyd Koester (Edinboro, PA/General McLane) and Justin Seeley (North East, PA/North East) were 13th and 14th, respectively, in the same event. Koester tallied a time of 18:27.79 and Seeley recorded a time of 18:31.31.
Mitcheltree, Myers, Kost and Ryan Siggins (Erie, PA/Iroquois) made up the team that led the Lions in the 800 freestyle relay. The group finished in fifth with a time of 7:37.17. Wheeling Jesuit broke Behrend's pool record in this event set back in 2010 (7:07.89) by nearly 10 seconds for first place.
Koester, Seeley, Ben Katsarsky (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) and Shannon Steves (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy) took 10th place in the 800 free relay (7:57.05) to finish the night.
The Lions return to action tomorrow for day two of the Fredonia Invitational. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m.