After going winless in three Atlantic Coast Conference dual meets in the inaugural ACC season for Pittsburgh last year, the women’s team needed just two weeks into the 2014-15 campaign to record their first win in their new home with a dual meet victory at Georgia Tech.
Pitt’s women posted a close 169-131 win against the Yellow Jackets and also dispatched of Georgia Southern, 237-63. At last year’s ACC Championships, Pitt finished two spots ahead of Georgia Tech.
“We now have our first ACC dual meet win under our belts,” said head coach Chuck Knoles. “Our women totally dominated a Georgia Tech team that beat Notre Dame just last night. It was a significant show of our depth and our ability to win events. I am very pleased with the direction we are going.”
“We had a lot of bright spots today in the women's meet. Our women competed tough today. It was impressive to watch.”
The results were reversed on the men’s side, as the suffered their first dual defeat of the season, 170-125. There was also a two-position gap between both teams at the 2014 ACC Championships, with Georgia Tech placing seventh and Pitt in ninth.
“Our men swam flat today, and Georgia Tech did not,” said Knoles. “It was nice to see Tony Galante win both 1M and 3M events in diving. But every now and again you have a disappointing performance as a team. That was today for our men.? I trust us to get back on target for next week's dual meets.”
Freshman Amanda Richey and sophomore Tony Galante were the coaches picks for performers of the meet. Richey recorded a season-high three wins, while Galante swept the diving events for the first time this year.
The women compiled wins in 10 wins in 14 swimming events, which included both relay teams, and absolutely dominated the freestyle with the depth of their lineup. In all five of the individual freestyle events, not only did Pitt swimmers win, but also placed three in the top-four each time. The 400-yd free relay also saw Panthers take the top two spots.
Freshman Amanda Richey swam to wins in three races, the 200 (1:52.24), 500 (4:55.12) and 1,000-yd (9:57.56) freestyles. So far Richey is undefeated in the two longer distances in her rookie season. Senior Dani des Tombe had three top-four individual finishes, which included a win in the 100-yd free (52.04). She was also second in the 200 free and fourth in the 200 IM. Additionally, des Tombe was a part of Pitt’s winning 400 free relay.
Completing the sweep of the freestyle races was junior Danyel Johnson in the 50 with a time of 23.79 seconds. Johnson also swam the last leg of the winning 200-yd medley relay on the Panthers’ winning team.
For the second straight week to open the season, sophomore Kinga Cichowska swept the breaststroke events with times of 1:03.08 in the 100 and 2:16.81 in the 200. Both performances were season bests for Cichowska.
The final individual winner for the Panthers was junior Blair Wegescheide in the 100-yd backstroke (57.87). Wegescheide teamed up with Johnson on the winning 200-yd medley relay, swimming the first leg. Between the two were senior Cam Dixon and junior Mackenzie Meixner.
Although the 200-yd medley relay team set the tone, it was the Pitt women’s 400-yd freestyle team that put the exclamation point that closed out the meet, with a Panthers season-best time of 3:30.91. Joining des Tombe on the squad were freshman Emily Murphy, junior Alex Iwanicki and sophomore Melissa Pocasi.
Despite the Pitt men struggling as a team, a number of individuals shone through. Of the 16 total events, Pitt placed first in six of them.
Galante swept the diving events with scores of 318.55 and 344.70 in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives, respectively. He was the only multi-event winner for the Panthers, which had only three other individual winners.
Senior Kourosh Ahani had a solid day, highlighted by winning the 100-yd butterfly, in a season-best time of 48.97, as he has been so accustomed to doing throughout his career. Ahani was also a prominent figure on a pair of relay teams, helping the 400-yd free relay team close out the meet with a win in 3:09.48. He was joined by juniors David Sweeney and Sean Heiden and senior Jon Lierley.
Scoring the most points in the breaststroke on the day was senior Luke Nosbisch. He won the 200 in a time of 2:05:08, and earlier grabbed second in the 100. Junior Mack Rice also had a pair of individual top-three showings and another one on a relay team. Rice finished first in the 200-yd IM (1:55.45), while taking third in the 100-yd back and second in 200-yd medley relay along with Ahani, Heiden and junior Connor O’Prey.
Sweeney, who was a member of the winning 400 free relay team, was Pitt’s best freestyle swimmer on the afternoon with a second place finish in the 200 and third place showing in the 100. Sophomore Zach Lierley also contributed to the success of the Panthers men with second place performance sin the 200 IM and 200 back.
Pitt returns to campus for an extremely busy weekend all beginning with the dual meet vs. St. Bonaventure on Friday, Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. Later that night, coach Marian Cassidy Clark will be honored as a Pitt ‘Awardee of Distinction.’
Leading off Saturday morning is Pitt’s alumni meet at 9 a.m. followed by a meet with Bucknell at 11 a.m.
The Georgia Southern University Swimming and Diving program opened their season this morning against two formidable opponents. From the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, the Eagles faced off in two dual-meets against Georgia Tech and Pitt.
The Eagles fell to host Georgia Tech 229-71 and to Pitt 237-63. "It's certainly been a tough week we definitely were fatigued," said Head CoachNate Kellogg. "But, I'm very proud of how our team has come together and supported each other. We had some bright spots and competed well overall but were up against two very tough teams."
The 50 Free saw Elaina Lanson finish 2nd in 23.86 having been edged out by Pitt's Danyel Johnson at 23.79. Also taking 2nd was Megan Heller in the 100 Fly. Heller clocked in at 57.87 and was just behind Kate Brandus of Georgia Tech who touched in 57.45.
The 200 Medley Relay team of Lauren Campbell, Amber Cortazzo, Heller and Lanson finished 4th with a time of 1:49.02. A 4th place finish was the result in the 400 Free Relay as Kylee Parsons, Kaylyn Thomas, Mae McWhorter, and Lanson touched in 3:36.44
Cortazzo finished 5th in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:06.23 and 5th again in the 200 Breast clocking in at 2:26.59.
In the 200 Back, Christina Moran touched in 5th place with a 2:07.37. The 500 Free saw Parsons touch in 5th place with a time of 5:12.85
Divers Emma Weisel and Erin Hembree finished 9th and 10th respectively in the 1 meter and 3 meter events.
The Eagles now turn their sights to Campbell University, as the swim team will make their way to Buies Creek, North Carolina on Saturday Oct. 25th. The meet is set to begin at 1 p.m.
Led by three wins from senior Andrew Kosic and another strong showing from junior Yuval Safra, the Georgia Tech men's swimming and diving team defeated Pitt Saturday at the GT Aquatic Center. The women split dual meets with Georgia Southern and Pitt.
Meet Scoring
The Georgia Tech men improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the ACC by rolling past Pitt, 170-125, with their third consecutive victory. The women's record moved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the ACC as the Jackets defeated Georgia Southern, 229-71, but were clipped by the Panthers, 169-131.
Men's Highlights
• Senior All-American Andrew Kosic won three more individual events and helped the 400 free relay finish the meet with a victory. Kosic took the 50 free (20.38), the 100 free (44.92) and the 200 free (1:39.41).
• Tech raked in the points in the 50 free with Kosic pacing four Jackets in the top five spots -- Andrew Chetcuti was second (21.04), Taylor Wilson was third (21.06) and Noah Harasz was fifth (21.27).
• Kosic, Yousef Hammoud (45.91) and Chetcuti (46.73) went 1-2-4 in the 100 free.
• Rookie Brian Woodbury continued his strong weekend by helping the 200 medley relay to victory in the meet's first event and finishing first in the 100 back (50.57) and second in the 200 back (1:51.90).
• Woodbury teamed with Mark Sarman, Ben Southern and Nico van Duijn to win the medley relay in 1:30.51.
• Southern and van Duijn swept the top two spots in the 200 fly with the sophomore winning in 1:48.30 and followed by the senior in 1:49.67.
• Sarman won the 100 breast (57.30) and the 200 IM (1:53.20).
• Yuval Safra and Elliott Brockelbank went 1-2 in both the 500 and 1,000 free. Safra was clocked in winning times of 9:24.59 and 4:32.74, while Brockelbank touched in 9:31.39 and 4:36.86. Safra was coming off a career-best 9:19.44 in winning the 1,000 on Friday night versus South Carolina.
• Brad Homza and Omar Eteiba finished second and third, respectively, on both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events.
• Robert Borowicz won the 200 back (1:05.73).
• Kosic, Hammoud, Chetcuti and van Duijn won the meet's final event - the 400 free relay - in a time of 3:03.83.
Women's Highlights
• Junior diver Shannon Lumbra remained undefeated on the weekend by winning both the 1-meter (298.70) and the 3-meter (308.50) in Saturday's meet.
• The Jackets claimed three of the top four spots in the 200 fly, led by Kate Brandus' winning time of 2:07.91. She was followed by Frederique Lefebvre in second (2:08.04) and Samantha Kase in fourth (2:09.52).
• Brandus also gave her team a victory in the 100 fly, out-touching Georgia Southern's Megan Heller at the wall with a winning time of 57.45.
• It was a top-three sweep for the hosts in the 200 IM with Chiara Ruiu leading the way in a time of 2:07.13. Kira de Bruyn was second (2:07.98) and Efrat Rotsztejn in third (2:09.11).
• The 100 back was a strong event with Tech occupying places two through five. Carly Sweeney was second (57.89), followed by Maddie Paschal (57.91), Xanna Tracy (58.34) and Katherine Kerman (58.66).
• Led by rookie Alex Rieger, the Jackets claimed three of the top four spots in the 200 back. Reiger won in a time of 2:02.84, Paschal in third (2:06.44) and Sweeney in fourth (2:07.13).
Quotes from Head Coach Courtney Shealy Hart
• "It was a good meet for the men and I'm really pleased with how we handled back-to-back meets. The women beat Georgia Southern and they were in a battle with Pitt."
• "Yuval (Safra) and Kate (Brandus) were our performers of the meet and both were big for us today with Yuval winning the 500 and 1,000 and Kate winning twice."
• "It's good to race on back-to-back like we did yesterday and today, but we still need to clean up some things moving forward. The experience of these back-to-back meets will be important for us heading into our Invitational and into championship season."
Up Next
• The Yellow Jackets are back in action at home next Saturday, hosting an ACC double-dual meet versus Florida State and NC State at the GT Aquatic Center. The meet begins at 11 a.m. and admission is free. The Jackets will wear pink caps to help raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness month, and pink rally towels and shakers will be distributed to fans.
