Pitt Swimming & Diving takes its mark for the upcoming season

The Pitt swimming and diving team didn’t have to go far for its first meet of the season. The Panthers traveled down Forbes Avenue to compete against Carnegie Mellon at the CMU Relay Meet on Oct. 5. 

The meet was unusual for the Panthers in several ways. For one, Carnegie Mellon is Division III in swim and dive, a few steps down from the Division I Panthers. The structure of the meet was also unique, as the relay-only format excluded individual events and had no diving. Third-year head coach Chase Kreitler didn’t mind the unusual first meet. 

“This was just a fun way to start the year,” Kreitler said. “It’s a non-traditional format … It’s not events that we normally do. We’re in a very heavy training phase of the year, lifting heavy. We’ve been doing a lot of volume, big aerobic practices at the beginning of the season. So for us, it was just a great way to kind of get in, get off the blocks, start to do race quality starts and turns. But, yeah, it was great. And I’ve never been to the CMU pool before. They’re our next-door neighbors — so it was a great chance to race them.”

Although the diving team didn’t compete at Carnegie Mellon, Kreitler notes that the team is still preparing for their season. Recent renovations in the team’s pool allow the athletes to train on heights they didn’t previously have access to. Kreitler is excited for the team to take this training to their upcoming season. 

“The divers, we’ve been doing a really exciting construction project, renovating the towers on our pool,” Kreitler said. “We’ve had limited access to the three meters, and so they’ve mostly been training one meter. And so it made a lot of sense to just kind of wait and start their season a little bit. Season a little bit later. But obviously really excited. We have a huge diving group this year, nine women and five men, which is great. I mean, obviously, they did a fantastic job last year, and we’ve got a really exciting group of freshmen that are coming in.”

The Tartans were no match for the Panthers, who ended the day with a whopping 13 first-place finishes and seven races where Pitt swept the entire podium. 

Looking ahead, Pitt has no shortage of goals for the rest of the season. Senior Tessa Mock, one of the captains of the women’s swim team, wants her team to surpass other teams in the ACC. 

“I think just to like handle ourselves, especially on the women’s side, like handle ourselves really gracefully and just show everyone, especially in the ACC that were forced to be reckoned with and move up a couple spots,” Mock said. “I think that would be really fun and a great way [to end [my] senior year and a great way to leave Pitt.” 

Mock understands how important the captain role is with the first-year and transfer athletes joining the team. 

“[The captains are] just a good thing to have, especially with such a big group of new people,” Mock said. “We have 24 new swimmers… So it’s just nice to have people here that can lead and know the ropes.”

Senior Paul Lerro, the men’s swim team captain, is proud of how the first-years are getting along with upperclassmen. 

“I think they’re doing really well … everyone is training super hard, and I’m loving the team atmosphere this year,” Lerro said. 

Parents of first-years attended to see their children compete in their first collegiate meet. John Wiechertjes, the father of freshman Anna Wiechertjes, knows his daughter has lofty goals for her first collegiate season. 

“So she wants to make ACCs this year. And of course, if she can make NCAAs, [that] would be the icing on the cake,” John Wiechertjes said. “But as a freshman, she’s just learning how to study, how to take care of herself and be part of the team. So yeah, I think her goal is just to enjoy her team.”

Next up, Pitt travels to State College on Oct. 25 and 26 to face off against Penn State.