Swimming and Diving: Panthers near season’s end

On a brisk December night in 1983, Juliane Brossman, a high school student on the New Jersey… On a brisk December night in 1983, Juliane Brossman, a high school student on the New Jersey Wave swim club, dove in to a 13-year-old, still state-of-the-art Trees Pool for the 1000 freestyle.

In a time before Dana Torres’ first Olympic race with NASA-developed swim suits, Brossman made her mark. She leveled her competition in the unforgiving 40-length race, posting 9:44.62 and setting a pool record.

In addition to being the oldest record still standing at Trees, Brossman’s mark was one of just five records to survive the Big East Championship meet held in Trees Pool on Pitt’s campus a little over a month ago.

The records for the men’s and women’s 1000 freestyle and 50 backstroke were never in any danger, as those events were not held at the championship meet. The men’s 1650 freestyle was the last remaining record left standing.

For the Pitt women’s team, freshman Cam Dixon set the school record in the 100 and 200 breast, while junior Joanna Budzis set the school record for the 400 IM and Kelsey Herbst set the mark in the 500 free.

Jon Lierley broke the Pitt record in the 200 fly, while Adam Maczewski set records in the 50 and 100 back for the men’s team. Both the 200 and 400 medley relay teams set school records as well.

The men’s team finished the championship in third place out of 10 teams with 520 points. Louisville, the defending Big East champion, was upset by Notre Dame by a margin of 887-859.5. Pitt’s closest competitor was West Virginia at 509.5.

The women’s team improved from its fifth place finish last year to take fourth out of 11 teams. They edged out the Villanova women by seven points with a score of 375.5 to 368.5 and finished behind Louisville (758.5), Notre Dame (593.5), and West Virginia (524).

“It says something to have a winning record for both teams,” Pitt head coach Chuck Knoles said. “We’re competitive in our meets, and we’re really looking forward to building up for our competition in the ACC. I was really proud of our team at champs. We really performed well and had some great times. We set a bunch of team records.”

The women had a split record, 1-1, against West Virginia this season, posting a commanding 60-point win over the Mountaineers in the Pitt Invitational in November but falling short in Morgantown in January. The Panthers’ other two in-conference losses stemmed from back-to-back meets against Big East titans Notre Dame and Louisville.

“I think this was the best we’ve done [at champs] since I’ve been at Pitt. I think we had a lot more depth than we’ve had in previous years,” Herbst said. “Overall, we’re very proud of our record this season.”

The men only lost to two in-conference teams, Notre Dame and Louisville.

With the Big East Championship over, the season is mostly finished. None of the Panther swimmers recorded NCAA ‘A’ cuts that would have guaranteed them a spot in the NCAA championship meet, and none of the swimmers with ‘B’ cuts were invited.

Pitt junior Maczewski attended the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship meet in late February in an effort to secure an ‘A’ cut, but his 100 backstroke was still just over a second short of the 46.28 needed to reach the cut. He did end up securing a ‘B’ cut and breaking the ECAC record he set the previous year with a 47.51.

“It turns out Adam was sick, and we didn’t even know it,” said Knoles. “He swam faster in the morning of ECACs than he did in the morning at Big East Champs, but couldn’t go any faster in the evening. We drove back to Pittsburgh, and it turned out he had an inner ear infection. So, all things considered, I thought that was a great performance from him.”

Most recently, three Panther divers went on to perform in the NCAA zones diving meet March 9 through 11. Sophomore Aaron Snyder took 28th and 36th in the men’s 1-meter and 3-meter dives, respectively. Freshman Angelika McGhee earned a trip to consolation finals and ended with a 13th-place finish in the women’s 1-meter dive. She also took 20th in the women’s 3-meter. Teammate Leigh Waltz placed 23rd and 26th in the 1- and 3-meter dives, respectively.

The last two big meets this season are the Canadian Olympic Trials and the Indianapolis Grand Prix, which will both take place between March 27 through April 1.

The Panthers will send five athletes to the Grand Prix to compete for Olympic trial cuts and another three to the Canadian Olympic Trials to compete for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for this summer’s Olympics in London.