FREDONIA, NY – The Penn State Behrend men's swimming and diving team finished the Fredonia State Blue Devil Invitational in fourth place out of nine teams on the final day of competition held on Sunday.
Wheeling Jesuit won the invite with 725 points. Allegheny was runner up with a score of 640.5 and the hosts were third with 602.5 points. The Lions beat John Carroll for fourth place by 61 points to end with 507.
Nick Kost (Ashburn, VA/Stone Bridge) just missed an NCAA "B" cut time with a 4:08.84 finish for second place in the 400 IM. In the same event, Ryan Elsey (Hermitage, PA/Hickory) was sixth with a personal-best time (4:27.62).
Mark Patterson (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin), Victor Nguyen (San Jose, CA/Evergreen Valley), Nick Roth (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) and Kyle Frerichs (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) opened the last day with a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:38.37).
After the relay, Patterson was third in the 100 backstroke and missed first by one second. Jeremy Brosius (Hatboro, PA/Hatboro-Horsham) and Manny Meinen (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte) were 11th and 12th place, respectively.
In the 200 breaststroke, Nguyen swam to a fourth-place finish with a time of 2:14.33. He took two seconds off his preliminary time. Blair Carson (Wellsboro, PA/Wellsboro) was eighth overall in 2:16.22, and Elsey was a second behind for ninth.
Behrend had two swimmers in the "A" finals of the 200 freestyle. Roth had the best time for the Lions, taking sixth in 1:48.51. Ryan Siggins (Erie, PA/Iroquois) was close behind in eighth (1:48.64).
In the 100 butterfly, Brosius took 13th in 55.88 and Keith Powell (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) came in 14th place (56.13), while Meinen was 16th (56.98).
In conclusion, Patterson, Ty Elder (Brentwood, CA/Heritage), Roth and Frerichs came in fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:15.55 to earn the final 30 points for Behrend.
The Lions return to action on Saturday, January 16 at Washington & Jefferson. Meet begins at 1 p.m.
