Up Close with Swimming & Diving Coach Chuck Knoles
11/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
No. 17 Men's Swimming and Diving Splits Triangular Meet at Notre Dame
11/12/2004
NOTRE DAME, Ind. ? For the first time since Halloween in 1998, the Pittsburgh men's swimming and diving team lost to a Big East opponent, missing a victory over the host Fighting Irish of Notre Dame by four-hundredths of a second in the last event on Friday evening.
Pittsburgh defeated Michigan State, 185-115 but was edged by Notre Dame by a final score of 155-145, ending the 26-meet winning streak and dropping the Panthers to 3-1 this season and 1-1 in Big East duals.
The Panthers went on a hot streak in the middle of the triangular meet, winning four of five races and six in all but couldn't overcome Notre Dame's depth or strength in the relays. In the final event of the evening, with Notre Dame clinging to a 142-141 advantage, the Panthers' team of Eric Bugby (Easton, Pa./Notre Dame), Tommy Bird (Charleston, W.Va./Capital), Jeff Leath (Mechanicsville, Va./New Community) and Darryl Washington (Aldan, Pa./Penn Wood) touched the wall just four-hundredths of a second behind the Fighting Irish and lost the meet.
Pittsburgh's diving squads enjoyed 32-6 edges over both the Fighting Irish and Spartans with 1-2-3 finished in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events. Junior Dennis Nemtsanov (Calhoun, Ga./Robert E. Lee/LSU) was the 1-meter winner with 324.6 points and freshman Jeremy Stultz (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) took first on the 3-meter board with 314.35 points.
Other Pittsburgh winners on the evening included: Jason Miller (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) in the 200 butterfly (1:50.34), Washington in the 100 freestyle (45.71 seconds), Leath in the 200 backstroke (1:49.94) and Miller again in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:52.56.
The Panthers will compete in the TYR Invitational next weekend at Northwestern University in Chicago.