Pitt
Duke
Swimming & Diving Opens Season With Split Results
10/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
PITTSBURGH - As one would imagine, in a matchup between teams that finished next to each other in the middle of the pack at last year's Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, Pitt and Duke swam in a tightly contested dual meet in the 2014-15 season opener for both teams on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Trees Pool.
This time however, the Pitt men got the best of Duke, winning the meet 170-128, while the Panthers women dropped the dual meet 166-138. After taking first and third in the 500-yd freestyle Pitt's women trailed Duke just 117-109, but only got one win in the final four events as Duke pulled away.
At the 2014 ACC Championships, Duke's men finished in eighth, one spot ahead of the Pitt men. The Duke women also had a one-spot advantage over the Pitt women, as the teams finished in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Pitt swimmers and divers won 15 individual events, with the men claiming nine of those.
A total of four Pitt swimmers were responsible for winning two events each. Freshman phenom Amanda Richey and super sophomore Scott Simmer swept the long distance races, both winning the 500- and 1,000-yd freestyle events.
Richey led off the individual swimming events by taking down the Pitt freshman record in the 1,000 in a time of 9:54.46. She had just claimed the record a week ago in the Blue-Gold Intrasquad with a time of 9:58.78. In the 500, Richey posted a time of 4:53.17. She also had a strong showing in the 200-yd free with a time of 1:51.89, good for second place and just 0.39 seconds behind the winner.
Simmer was just as dominant in his only two races, helping Pitt go one-two in both the 500 and 1,000 with times of 4:37.16 and 9:30.82, respectively.
Junior David Sweeney paced Pitt in two of the shorter freestyles, the 100 and 200. Sweeney's times for his first place performances were 45.46 seconds and 1:41.06, respectively. He also led off Pitt's second place 400-yd free relay to close out the meet. The school record holder in both the 100- and 200-yd breaststroke, sophomore Kinga Cichowska continued her supremacy in the events with a pair of first place finishes. She registered a time of 1:03.38 in the 100 and 2:17.26 in the 200.
Recording notable performances in a number of different events was sophomore Zach Lierly with top-two performances in the 1,000 free, 200-yd backstroke and 200-yd IM. Lierley won the backstroke in 1:49.77. He finished second to Simmer in the 1,000 free (9:36.54) and second to Duke's Peter Kropp in the 200 IM (1:53.01).
Swimmers senior Kourosh Ahani and junior Martin Vogel were the remaining individual winners in the men's racing competition. Ahani owned the field in his best race, the 100-yd butterfly, with a time of 49.36 for first place. Vogel, meanwhile, took the longer 200-yd fly in 1:49.23.
In addition to her one victory, senior Dani des Tombe had two more top-three individual finishes and was a member of Pitt's second-place 400-yd free relay. des Tombe swam to a win in the 200 free in 1:51.50. She was second in the 200 IM (2:07.76) and third in the 100 free (51.76)
Two more swimmers, seniors Joey Notarianni and Cam Dixon, also had strong swims on the day. Notarianni was second in both the 200 back (1:53.35) and 200 free (1:42.63), while Dixon was second in the 100 breast (1:04.50) and third in the 200 breast (2:21.59).
In diving, the men's duo of Harris Bergman and Tony Galante combined to take the top two positions in both 1-meter and 3-meter dives. Galante started off the meet with a score of 333.15 from 1-meter and Bergman was right behind with 331.73. The two reversed roles for the 3-meter with Bergman grabbing first (377.10) and Galante second (321.60).
After placing fourth in the women's 3-meter, freshman Meme Sharp won the 1-meter on her final dive. Sharp was trailing the entire time until the last of her six dives pushed her final score 274.95 - just 4.20 points ahead of second.
The Panthers swimming and diving team will hit the road for the first time this season next weekend, going to Atlanta for a dual meet with ACC-foe Georgia Tech. Pitt's women will also go against Georgia Southern.
