ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team defeated St. Vincent 142-138 on the final 200 freestyle relay in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon in the Junker Center.
It came down to where the Lions placed in the final relay of the day. Behrend took second and third to edge the Bearcats by four points and earn its eighth straight dual-meet victory to close out the regular season.
The second-place team consisted of lead-off Quinn Fischer (Fairview, PA/Cathedral Prep), Alex Croll (Honolulu, HI/Roosevelt), Mark Patterson (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) and Liam Watterson (Brentwood, PA/Baldwin). They touched in 1:29.16 for runner up.
The foursome of Jacob Schmidt (Erie, PA/Cathedral Prep), Dillon Scheidemantle (Mars, PA/Pine-Richland), Justin Spence (Houston, TX/Cy-Fair) and Ryan Siggins (Erie, PA/Iroquois), who finished third in 1:32.39 to edge the second St. Vincent team, helped the Lions seal the close victory.
Four individuals won events, while Matthew Kuchcinski (North East, PA/North East) won the one-meter and three-meter diving events. The freshman earned the maximum points with a score of 223.70 on the one-meter and 247.20 on the three-meter board.
In the 1000 freestyle, David Ewing (South Fayette, PA/South Fayette) touched first in 10:23.20 and Schmidt was close second in 10:24.80 for the Lions.
Steven Owens (Erie, PA/McDowell) led Behrend in the 200 butterfly with a winning time of 2:03.59. Patterson won the 200 backstroke (1:59.17) and Watterson followed in second (2:05.06). Patterson was also runner up in the 200 freestyle (1:47.02) and Watterson got his second runner-up nod in the 100 backstroke (57.32).
Schmidt and Noah Babik (Penn Township, PA/Penn Trafford) were also individual winners. Schmidt and Ewing went 1-2 in the 500 freestyle with times of 5:00.03 and 5:03.31, respectively. Babik touched first in the 200 breaststroke (2:17.18), edging John Martin of St. Vincent (2:17.31).
Behrend returns to action on Wednesday, February 14 in the AMCC Championships.