GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team broke 10 records in six events to take the early lead at the 2012 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championships (AMCC) with a team score of 169.
The Lions' are first out of four teams in the AMCC portion of the meet and are third out of seven squads in conjunction with the James E. Longnecker Invitational hosted by Grove City College.
The 200 free relay finished first in the AMCC and third overall with a record-breaking time of 1:25.77. Clay Altemose (Apollo, PA/Apollo-Ridge), on the original relay that set the record at the AMCC meet in 2010, joined Daniel Simon (Harrison City, PA/Penn Trafford), Justin Pritchard (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) and Hunter Backenstose (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown East) to break the AMCC open and meet record along with the team record.
In the 200 IM, Javier Solivan (San Juan, Puerto Rico/UHS) set a new team record with a time of 1:58.55. He finished second in the conference and sixth overall. Simon was able to set three new records by himself in the 50 free. His time of 21.53 in the preliminaries broke the AMCC open and meet record, while setting a new program record. Simon had a finals time of 21.60 to take sixth overall and second in the conference.
Ryan Mitcheltree (Moon Township, PA/Moon) was the top Behrend swimmer in the 500 free, swimming 4:55.15 in the prelims and 5:01.04 in the finals for first in the AMCC and eighth overall.
The men's one-meter diving finals were the second to last event of the night. Sophomore Lucas Kachurick (McKeesport, PA/Elizabeth Forward) repeated as champion with a score of 423.75 for first place out of six divers.
The foursome in the 200 free relay team was the same in the 400 medley relay that broke three more records. Altemose, Simon, Pritchard and Backenstose got back in the water to shatter the AMCC open and meet record with a time of 3:29.65. The relay took 10 seconds off their preliminary time to also set a team record and place first in the AMCC (third overall). Individually, Simon was the lead off swimmer and hit an NCAA "B" time of 51.67 to give the Lions a good start.
Behrend will compete tomorrow in the second day of the AMCC Championships. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m.
