BEHREND MEN EXTEND LEAD, CABRINI WOMEN MAKE THEIR MOVE IN SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIP

The Penn State Behrend men put substantial daylight between themselves and their closest rivals while the Cabrini College women surged ahead of Behrend for a four point lead on Day 3 of the AMCC Swimming and Diving Championship Meet.

The Lions have their twelfth straight AMCC men's title in their sights with 508 points after 28 events.  Cabrini College is in second with 282, Pitt-Bradford and Alfred State College are tied for third with 270, and Penn St. Altoona sits in fifth with 122.

Pitt-Bradford took first in the opening 200 medley relay as Cory Koss, Noah Frederick, Nick Boyd and Jared Schwab posted a time of 1:36.50.  Schwab was also the fastest competitor in the 100 backstroke, posting a 52.48.  Alfred State sophomore Ethan Dale won gold in the 400 IM with a 4:19.44.  

Behrend junior Mark Patterson broke four records on the night in the 200 freestyle. He clocked in at 1:41.83 to set a new team, pool, AMCC meet and conference record.  Teammate Stephen Owens won the 100 butterfly in 52.60, while sophomore Noah Babik recorded a 58.72 to take gold in the 100 breaststroke.

In diving, Alfred State sophomore Nick Beach finished as AMCC champion in the 1 meter board for the second straight year after winning the 3 meter title on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Cabrini College women are focused on winning their second AMCC title.  They are the only team to interrupt the Behrend women's championship string of 10 crowns, taking their only championship in 2014.  The Cavaliers concluded Day 3 with 382 points, with Behrend in second (378), Alfred State in third (333), Penn St. Altoon in fourth (130), while Franciscan University (110) and Pitt-Bradford (106) battled for fifth and sixth.

That said, the Behrend women won all six events and broke five records on Friday.  

Abigail Witmer, Devon Van Rensburg, Gwendolyn Lowery and Paola Maldonado won the 200 medley relay to begin  the session with a time of 1:53.76. Lowery then won the 400 IM and did it in style by breaking the AMCC meet and open record with a time of 4:46.48.  Witmer was crowned AMCC champion with a time of 1:00.02 in the 100 butterfly, and Jessica Wyckoff brought the AMCC meet, conference and team records with a first place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:56.75).  Maryn Horn claimed gold in the 100 breaststroke, touching in 1:11.47.  Witmer won her second individual title of the day in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.08 to close the competition for the day.

Click here for complete Friday results.

The championship wraps up Saturday. Preliminaries begin at 10 am and finals at 6pm.