Pitt
Georgia Tech
Swimming and Diving Splits Dual Meet with Georgia Tech
10/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
PITTSBURGH – Though the Pitt men’s swimming and diving team fell in a competitive finish to Georgia Tech, 160-137, the women’s squad claimed its first victory of the season, 191-109, over the Yellow Jackets Saturday at Trees Pool.
“One of the things that we’re working on is trying to teach our very young team to repeat races in a dual meet,” said head coach Chuck Knoles. “We were able to see that today on both the men and the women’s sides. I was very pleased to see that happen. The ACC is a tough conference. This Georgia Tech meet was a very, very good meet. We’re fairly evenly matched teams, and it gave us a good chance to race somebody at our level. Now we’re going to go against the best in the next several weeks and we’ll see what we’re made of.”
Junior Dom Giordano highlighted the day with a brilliant performance in the 3M diving competition, setting two records in the process. His score of 439.73 is a new program best, eclipsing Jeremy Stultz (409.75) who became the leader in 2008. More impressively, Giordano crushed the mark set by Miami’s Rio Ramirez on Feb. 2, 1998, to reclaim the Trees Pool record for the Panthers as well. He also set a new personal best in the 1M with a 368.55 performance.
It’s difficult to tell at this early stage in the season, but Giordano may be poised for an historic campaign.
“That was a very legitimate new pool record,” said diving head coach Julian Krug. “He did some phenomenal diving and even left a few out there. What I said to him was, ‘You may be in the process of redefining ‘good’. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more graceful, physically, and mentally talented diver than Dominic Giordano.”
For the women’s divers, sophomore Meme Sharp and junior Rachel Saunders led the way, finishing 1-2 in the 3M competition. Sharp went on to win the 1M for the Panthers as well in her first action of the year.
Standouts for the women’s swimmers included a number of athletes accustomed to top finishes. Junior Kinga Cichowska maintained her dominance in the breaststroke with wins in the 100 and 200. Sophomore Katie Fernander finished just behind her in both races. Cichowska also claimed the top spot in the 200 IM.
Sophomore Amanda Richey and senior Kaleigh Ritter turned in predictably strong distance swims. Richey and Ritter again finished first and second, respectively in the 1000 free, while Ritter would go on to claim the 500 as well – followed closely by freshman Meghan Joram and senior Bethany DeWitt. Richey demonstrated her versatility by winning in the 200 back, while senior Danyel Johnson rounded out the women’s freestylers with a first place finish in the 50.
On the men’s side, senior David Sweeney continued to shine in the 200 free, once again taking first overall. Freshman Brian Lovasik finished only a second behind the upperclassman. Sweeney also finished second in the 50 free. Senior Mack Rice finished first in the 200 IM and second in the 100 back.
The Panthers will return to action next Saturday, Oct. 24, at Bucknell in a dual meet set for a Noon start.
