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Pitt Invite Recaps - Day 1

The University of Pittsburgh swimming and diving teams made a strong showing on the first day of the Pitt Invite behind top times from the likes of freshman Amanda Richey, junior Kaleigh Ritter and others across multiple events.

"This is our pool, and it's a very, very fast pool," said head coach Chuck Knoles. "We have a very good opportunity to have our kids get into finals or consolations and do a really good job. (Today's success) sets us up really well for the rest of the weekend because the kids are on a roll now. They believe they can do it and they believe in themselves. It's a really nice situation to be in."

The women's team set the tone early with top times in all three of its morning prelim races, including supplying seven of the eight 50-yd freestyle Championship Final qualifiers. Of those, Emily Murphy (23.40) and Jessica Nederlanden (23.47) finished one-two to provide the two new top times in that event this season.

Richey came within roughly two seconds of a school record time in the 500-yd free, turning in a personal record of 4:46.03 and eclipsing her own top team mark this year. Ritter (4:47.26) and junior Bethany DeWitt (4:50.62) added the No. 2 and 3 season-best times right behind her. Sophomore Kinga Cichowska’s 2:02.75 in the 200 IM Championship Final, with four Panthers close behind, was a personal record and around two seconds short of the Pitt record.

On the men's side, junior Sean Heiden's 20.58 in the 50 free Championship Final was good for first overall in the event and the fastest men's time this season. The relay team of Heiden, senior Sean Rhinehart, junior David Sweeney and senior Kourosh Ahani in the 200 free relay also raced to a first place finish and a season-best 1:20.86.

Sophomore Anthony Galante's 314.60 in the 3-meter dive and junior Samantha Winkelmann’s 289.80 in the 1-meter made both of them winners of their respective diving competitions.

"Having a successful Pitt Invite shows the kids that they've been training well and doing the right things," said Coach Knoles. "We had a lot of lifetime bests today and we saw a lot of improvement from kids we really needed to see improvement from. We're in a good place."

Competition at Trees Pool continues Saturday, Nov. 22 on day two of the Pitt Invite with prelims at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.

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