GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team did it again. The Lions will return home from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships their sixth straight trophy, placing first with a team score of 570.
Behrend led each day of the championships and claimed the Longnecker Invitational Diver and Coach of the Year in Lucas Kachurick (McKeesport, PA/Elizabeth Forward) and Gordy Schmidt, respectively. It is the sophomore's second time winning this prestigious award. Kachurick won the three-meter diving competition on Thursday, before capturing the one-meter tonight with an NCAA qualifying score of 427.95. He also reset his AMCC open and meet record in the preliminaries with a score of 443.75.
More records were broken on the final day of the championships, beginning with Dan Simon (Harrison City, PA/Penn Trafford) in the 200 backstroke. He broke the AMCC open and meet record twice, first in the preliminaries and finals. Simon clocked in a final time of 1:58.03.
Javier Solivan (San Juan, Puerto Rico/UHS) went out with a bang tonight, breaking the AMCC open and meet record by winning the 200 butterfly. He led a 1-2-3 finish with a time of 1:57.04. Clay Altemose (Apollo, PA/Apollo-Ridge) was second in 1:57.37 and Ryan Mitcheltree (Moon Township, PA/Moon) came in third (1:58.34).
Brian Mong (Franklin, PA/Franklin) led the Lions and the AMCC in the 1650 free. He won in 17:23.75, while Josh Schwab (Bradford, PA/Bradford) placed second with a time of 17:45.70.
In the 100 free, Peter Blazak (Sewickley, PA/Quaker Valley) was the first of three Behrend swimmers to take the top spots. Blazak touched first in 48.39 followed by Everett Sargent (Gibsonia, PA/Pine-Richland) in second (48.75) and Andrew Opalewski (Slippery Rock, PA/Slippery Rock) in third (48.97).
Even though the Lions did not win the 200 breaststroke, Justin Pritchard (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) managed to come in second in the conference and sixth overall with a time of 2:11.58, just .30 tenths of a second from breaking the team record. Jake Sherk (Elizabethtown, PA/Elizabethtown) claimed third place in 2:14.64.
The 400 free relay closed the meet with a first-place finish, leaving their mark with a time of 3:08.81 to break the AMCC open, AMCC meet and team record.
