Swimming and Diving: Panthers successful over weekend

The Pitt swimming and diving team picked up three total victories at Trees Pool this weekend,… The Pitt swimming and diving team picked up three total victories at Trees Pool this weekend, but the Panthers also came together with their opponents to work toward a common goal.

Both the Pitt men’s and women’s teams competed against the University of Maryland — the men won 193.5-159.5 and the women lost 222-131 — but last weekend’s competition might mark the last time the Panthers and the Terrapins face off.

Maryland decided to ax eight varsity sports in order to deal with a budget deficit inside its athletic department. In late November, Maryland president Wallace Loh announced the eight programs to be cut, and the Terrapin swimming and diving teams were left with the daunting task of raising $11.56 million before June 30.

Hundreds of teams, including Pitt, have expressed support for the imperiled athletes by making signs and posting them to the “Save UMD Swimming & Diving” Facebook group that has nearly 14,000 members.

Pitt joined the crusade alongside Big East rival Cincinnati after their meet in late October, taking a picture of the two teams holding signs saying “Save the Terps!” and posting it to the Facebook group. So far, more thanb 200 teams have shown their support in this way.

“That’s what happens with a university when they need to cut a program,” Pitt swimmer Hussein Medhat said. “They go for swimming because they don’t produce that much profit for the university as a sport. It’s really sad. Swimming is one of those sports that are dying off at the collegiate level.”

But whatever sympathy Medhat had for the Maryland program (7-4, 1-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) was left on the deck. The junior took home two firsts and a second in his individual events and then pulled in another two firsts and a fourth in his relay events. His efforts did much to solidify a lead for the Pitt men (8-3, 5-2 Big East) late in the back-and-forth meet.

“On the men’s side, we led Maryland by 20 points the first day and pretty much dominated the meet the first day,” Pitt head coach Chuck Knoles said. “The second day Maryland came back, but our guys stepped up and went one-two-three in the 500 freestyle to kind of clinch the win.”

Medhat was the “one” in that combination, clocking a 4:39.67 as he barely edged out Pitt sophomore Alex Rodenkirk. He also cruised past Rodenkirk to take the gold in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:40.50.

In the 100-yard freestyle Friday night, Medhat finished with a 45.27 as he was out-touched by 0.2 seconds by Maryland sophomore John Hauser.

“He had one of the fastest 200 freestyles for the team, in season,” Knoles said of Medhat. “This is only Hussein’s second meet back since shoulder surgery. His first meet back was against West Virginia. So that bodes well for us moving down the road.”

Medhat missed the first half of the season because of his surgery.

“Even last week I was pretty surprised by my performance,” Medhat said. “I had only just started swimming after my surgery. I didn’t see it coming, but I’m happy about it.”

The Pitt women’s team (8-6, 5-3 Big East) picked up a 240-133 win over the University of Richmond (5-7, 0-0 Atlantic 10) and a 244-109 victory over Villanova (9-9, 3-4 Big East).

Joanna Budzis led the way for the Panthers, taking first in all three of her individual events. The junior has been streaky this season but finally had a dominant performance over the course of the weekend.

“We hadn’t really had a stellar performance across the board from Joanna until this meet,” Knoles said. “She’s an Olympic swimmer from Poland; we always expect a lot from her. At this two-day meet she was stellar. She was the star she was supposed to be.”

Budzis placed first in the women’s 400-yard individual medley on Friday night with a time of 4:22.14. She also picked up a sixth-place finish swimming the backstroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay (1:47.73) and a third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:36.51).

She returned Saturday to take first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.48) and earn a commanding win in the 200-yard backstroke with a 2:00.80, finishing nearly three seconds ahead of her closest competition.

She wrapped up the evening by picking up the silver in the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay (3:29.74). Her efforts earned her the title of Pitt Performer of the Meet.

The wins over Richmond and Villanova were an about-face from the Panthers’ sluggish meet against West Virginia last week.

“I think the girls realized they did not perform as well as they could have against West Virginia,” Knoles said. “They wanted to make a statement at our own pool against a future ACC team — against a conference championship team, Richmond — and our current conference foe, Villanova.”

While the women cruised to easy victories in two of their matchups, the roles were reversed when they faced powerhouse No. 25 Maryland (13-1, 3-1 AC).

“It was really good to swim such a strong team,” Budzis said. “I really enjoyed racing Maryland. I’m pretty sad that they’re getting cut. It’s such a good team — especially the girls team. You can see that they won every single relay.”

Not everyone is convinced the team will be getting axed before Pitt makes the dive into the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I’m not certain that this will be our last meeting,” Knoles said. “Swimming and diving have done the best job of all the other sports in terms of helping the University of Maryland in finding alternative methods to fund their sport. My feeling is that they’re going to find a way to keep swimming and diving around. They have one of the best facilities in the country, and they’ve done a great job raising money in just two months.”

After a weeklong break, Pitt will swim next against the University of Virginia, which is ranked No. 12 in both the men’s and women’s polls.