SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Senior Jeff Leath recorded two individual first-place finishes and assisted on a first-place relay, as Pitt's men's swimming and diving team dropped a 172-126 conference match-up against Notre Dame. Pitt falls to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 in the Big East.
Leath (Mechanicsville, Va./New Community) recorded first-place performances in both backstroke events. In the 100 back he touched the wall at 50.54. Later his 1:49.10 in the 200 back was nearly five seconds faster than any other swimmer.
As the lead off on the 200 free relay, Leath aided the Panthers in another first-place finish. The team of Leath, freshman Alex Kubicek (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway), sophomore Patrick Mansfield (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne) and freshman Rene Hjorth (Copenhagen, Denmark/Copenhagen) stopped the clock at 1:24.54 for the win.
Junior Warren Barnes (Pickering, Ontario/Dunbarton) also recorded two individual first-place finishes in the meet. Barnes finished with times of 56.12 in the 100 breast and 2:04.00 in the 200 breast.
The third Panther swimmer to record an individual first-place finish was Mansfield, who won the 50 free with a time of 21.44. Mansfield later placed second in the 100 free at 47.19.
Sophomore Aleksandr Volovetski (Brandon, Fla./Armwood) dominated the diving events for the Panthers, as he finished first in both. He scored 328.35 points on the 1M board and 353.25 points on the 3M.
The meet opened as the 200 medley relay team of Leath, Barnes, freshman Geoff Morgan (Cornwall, N.Y./Cornwall) and Kubicek finished in second place (1:33.28), tenths of a second behind Notre Dame.
Recording third-place finishes for the Panthers in the meet were: junior David Anderson (Lawrenceville, Ga./Collins Hill) in the 200 fly (1:54.49) and 400 IM (4:10.32), Kubicek in the 50 free (21.60) and senior Dave Montgomery (Thorton, Pa./Salesianum School) in the 100 breast (58.67).
The Panthers travel to New Jersey on Dec. 1. The swimmers will compete in the three-day Princeton Invitational, while the divers participate in the Rutgers Diving Invitational during the same three days.
