Four former members of the Maryland men’s swimming team are transferring to Penn State next season to swim for coach John Hargis. They are among 5 transfers that Penn State coach John Hargis will add to his lineup in the 2012-2013 season.
This news, combined with the departure of assistant coach Matt Emmett pretty much puts the writing on the wall for the Terrapins ahead of the June 30th fundraising benchmark.
Next season, Peter Fittin, John Hauser, Kyle Madley, and Ryan Magee will join Virginia transfer Tim Maurer as they move from College Park, Maryland to University Park, Pennsylvania.
Hauser is the biggest signing of that group; he was named the MVP of Maryland’s team last year after finishing 8th at the ACC Championships in the 200 free. He was by far the Terrapins’ best swimmer last season in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles. His bests of 20.19 and 44.15 would have made him the second-fastest Nittany Lion last season, and more importantly a 1:36.89 in the 200 free will insert him as a huge relay anchor for Penn State’s 800 free relay. As good as their medley relays were, their 800 free relay finished second-to-last at last year’s Big Ten Championships.
Fittin is a sprinter, just like his two sisters former ACC Champ Annie Fittin, and sophomore Carolyn Fittin, who swam at Maryland last year (Update: she will be headed to Penn State as well). He’s got bests of 20.98 in the 50 and 45.75 in the 100. That time would put him 4th among returning swimmers to the Penn State team, behind three other swimmers who like Peter will also be juniors.
Madley, a butterflier, had a great year in his freshman season at Maryland. He had bests of 49.15 in the 100 fly and 1:49.22 in the 200 fly. His potential is shown by the fact that those marks are both 1.5-to-2 seconds faster than he was coming out of high school. He’s also taken huge chunks of time off of his long course bests as well. That will bring him in as the number-two butterflier on Penn State’s team. He
Magee, another sophomore-to-be, is a big-time 200 backstroke specalist, with a best of 1:47.83 from last year’s ACC Championships that put him 2nd in the C-Final at last year’s ACC Championships.
Maurer comes in from another ACC program, Virginia, after not making the Cavaliers’ ACC Championship scoring team last year as a freshman. He could fill a lot of different holes for Penn State. His best events are the 100 and 200 backstroke, with bests of 48.71 and 1:48.01, respectively. The backstroke group is going to be very crowded at Penn State next season, with sophomore-to-be Nathaniel Savoy (who was 3rd at last year’s Big Ten Championships), incoming freshman Shane Ryan, and juniors Sean Grier and Thomas Mershon. This addition seals-up their status as the top backstroke group in the conference.
To read about the entire class for the Nittany Lions, click here.