GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team continue to dominate the 2016 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships after the second day of competition on Friday.
The Lions now hold a commanding lead with 255 points with day two in the books. Behrend won six out of the seven events tonight and are 155 points in front of second place Pitt-Bradford (100). Cabrini is third (70) and Altoona is fourth (49).
Nick Kost (Ashburn, VA/Stone Bridge) was named the 400 IM Champion for third year in a row and also was first overall for the Longnecker Invitational with an NCAA "B" cut time of 4:06.73. His time was nearly 12 seconds faster than the preliminaries. This is the second AMCC title for Kost this weekend. He also took first in the 200 IM on Friday.
Similar to yesterday's 200 IM, Ryan Elsey (Hermitage, PA/Hickory) and Nathan Wagner (Ypsilanti, MI/Lincoln) followed Kost's performance, placing second and third in the AMCC, respectively. Elsey ws 10th overall with a time of 4:29.50 and Wagner took 14th (4:34.40).
The Lions opened day two finals with the AMCC title in the 200 medley relay. Mark Patterson (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin), Blair Carson (Wellsboro, PA/Wellsboro), Nick Roth (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) and Nick Snyder (Murrysville, PA/Franklin Regional) made up the winning team with a time of 1:37.92. Snyder had the best split as the anchor, clocking in at 21.66.
In addition to the relay win, Roth was named AMCC Champion in the 100 butterfly. He clocked in at 52.37 and was also sixth overall.
Patterson then led a 1, 2, 3 finish in the 200 freestyle. He has the top time for the individual medalist honors (fifth overall) in 1:45.79. Ryan Siggins (Erie, PA/Iroquois) was runner up and 10th overall in 1:47.86 and Kyle Frerichs (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) took third and 11th overall (1:48.65).
Behrend had their second sweep of the night following the 200 freestyle. Victory Nguyen (San Jose, CA/Evergreen Valley) is the AMCC Champion and placed fifth overall in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.53), while Carson was second in the conference and seventh overall (1:00.83) and Scott Romanko (Plum, PA/Plum) came in third (12th overall; 1:02.08).
The Lions surrendered their lone gold medal in the 100 backstroke. Jeremy Brosius (Hatboro, PA/Hatboro-Horsham) swam to runner-up status for silver with a time of 57.24.
The final 800 free relay was won by Roth, Patterson, Siggins and Kost. That championship foursome clocked in at 7:14.18 for fifth overall and earned an additional 28 point to Behrend's total for the night.
The Lions returns to action tomorrow for the final day of the championships. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. with finals at 6 p.m.
