The long season in the pool for the Pitt swim team has been a tough one. But for three Panthers… The long season in the pool for the Pitt swim team has been a tough one. But for three Panthers swimmers, hard work paid off at the ECAC Championships to land them possible spots in the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman Alexander Rodenkirk set a season-best time in the 100 free, while Christoph Berger and Sarah Looney also placed very well, fighting through the fatigue that the end of the season brings.

“A good portion of us came back from the Big East Championship and swam in the ECAC Championships,” senior swimmer Alex Kubicek said. “For that two-week series, we had to keep our morale pretty high.”

Two weeks ago, the women finished fifth and the men finished third at the Big East Championships. This past weekend, the swimming team competed in the 2011 ECAC Championships at Trees Pool.

The tournament involved a series of events, so some of the team members had been consistently competing for the last two weeks.

“Anytime you have back to back meets like that it’s a tough thing to do,” head coach Chuck Knoles said. “Having the meet here at the University of Pittsburgh allowed us to have a meet that was local and didn’t cost us very much, but also allowed us to step up and race.”

Those swimmers who were feeling overworked didn’t have to compete at the ECACs.

Kubicek understood that it was going to be a grind, but he said that the coaching staff of the team is consistently there for the athletes.

“The coaches did a really good job helping out and not putting too much pressure on us,” Kubicek said. “They were keeping us in our training routine and reminding us what our mentality should be.”

As the ECAC wrapped up Sunday night,  Rodenkirk finished second in the 100 free. His second-place swim came with his season-best 45.83 time, which placed him third in prelims.

“He’s been one of those kids that, from the moment we started recruiting him, we expected big things out of him,” Knoles said. “Every single meet that he swam in this season, he got better at something.”

Two other Panthers made the finals of the ECAC as well.

In the 200 back, Berger advanced to the finals as the seventh seed with a season best 1:52.68.

As part of her final ECAC Championship, Looney of the women’s team swam in the consolation final of the 100 free. She placed 15th in prelims with a season-best 1:52.68.

Later, Berger came back and finished seventh in the 200 back with a time of 1:53.88. This was his first medal in an ECAC Championship.

As the championship season continues, the Panthers are currently awaiting NCAA berths to see if their times qualify as other meets are going on across the country.

“If you have a fast time, you can possibly get invited in,” Kubicek said. “We’re still sitting on the edge waiting to see if we can get the invite.”

Diving events will be held March 11-13 in Annapolis, Md. Women’s NCAA swimming action begins on March 17 in Austin, Texas, and the men will travel to Minneapolis on March 24. The team members will learn later this week whether they will receive an NCAA berth.

“For the kids that look like they have a pretty good shot of advancing to the NCAAs, we keep them in the water and active,” Knoles said. “For the kids who don’t seem to have a shot, we give them a break and get back to work the Monday after spring break.”

Being invited to swim in the NCAA Tournament is a huge honor, and Kubicek recognizes that.

“Especially for our sport,” Kubicek said. “It’s the fastest swimmers on the planet. Even with the Olympics, because a lot of foreign swimmers come to the United States for universities and to train, so NCAAs is a very large honor for our sport.”