Westminster Nips Men's Swimming and Diving

ERIE, Pa. – The Westminster men's swimming and diving team narrowly edged Penn State Behrend 151-143 in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon in the Junker Center.

In the closest dual-meet between the two teams, the Lions (1-1) placed first, third and fifth in the final 400 yard freestyle relay but fell short of getting their first win over the Titans.

Noah Babik (Penn Township, PA/Penn Trafford), Michael Bauer (Northampton, PA/Northampton) and Mark Patterson (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) were double winners on the day. Bauer, Patterson, Alex Croll (Honolulu, HI/Roosevelt) and Cole Dombrosky (Mount Pleasant, PA/Mount Pleasant) made up the winning 400 freestyle relay and the end of the meet. The foursome had a winning time of 3:16.31.

Individually, Bauer touched first in the 100 backstroke (55.64) and Patterson was the top swimmer in the 200 backstroke (2:00.09). Babik was the only swimmer to win a pair of individual events. He first won the 100 breaststroke (1:03.47) and then led the way in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.00).

Bauer, Babik, Croll and Steven Owens (Erie, PA/McDowell) started off with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:41.05.

Owens, Brady Mattson (Wilmington, DE/Delaware Military Academy) and Jacob Schmidt (Erie, PA/Cathedral Prep) also picked up wins on the day. Owens had a winning time of 2:03.79 in the 200 butterfly, while Mattson earned first place in the 1000 freestyle (10:32.65). David Ewing (South Fayette, PA/South Fayette) was second in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:41.08.

Schmidt won the 500 freestyle (5:03.91) and Patterson was second (5:06.23). In addition to the 500 free, Patterson was second in the 200 free (1:49.84).

Owens was also second in the 100 butterfly (54.83) and third in the 200 IM (2:09.03) for the Lions.

In the sprinting freestyle events, Quinn Fischer (Fairview, PA/Cathedral Prep) led the way with a second-place finish in 22.56 and Croll was a close third in 22.61. In the 100 freestyle, Bauer was second in 48.18 and Dombrosky was third (50.94).

Diver Matthew Kuchcinski (North East, PA/North East) earned second-place finishes on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. On the one-meter, he had a score of 203.00 and on the three-meter he recorded a score of 206.65.

Behrend returns to action on Saturday at Chatham. Meet time is 1 p.m.