The Pitt swim and dive team finished their season as they took on the ACC Championships on Georgia Tech’s campus at the McAuley Aquatic Center. Despite some individual success, Pitt was not as competitive as they would have liked. Out of 15 competing schools, the women’s team finished on the leaderboard sixth and the men in 11th.
The women’s grouping performed well, taking on the best of the ACC and finishing in the top third. However, the men were mostly disappointing, finishing in the back half of competitors.
While the team broke plenty of team records and many personal bests, they were unable to elevate themselves to the upper echelon of ACC competition at this year’s championships.
Jansen earns first podium for women’s individual at Pitt in 10 seasons
The top achievement for the Panthers during the championships came in the 200-meter backstroke competition. Senior swimmer Claire Jansen finished in third place in the competition, becoming the first women’s medalist in program history. She finished the race in 1:49.99, finishing 2.5 seconds behind first place. Jansen’s time was roughly four seconds better than the automatic qualifying time for nationals in 2025, giving her a great shot at participating in nationals.
Jansen is one of the most accomplished swimmers in program history, owning the school record in three backstroke races, 50 through 200 meters. All three were set during the 2026 ACC championships, highlighting her individual success in spite of a lackluster team performance.
Other individual successes from Atlanta
Outside of Jansen, the best individual performance at the championships was from sophomore male swimmer Julian Koch, whose 41.26 time finished fourth in the 100-meter freestyle, 0.14 seconds outside of third place and 0.33 seconds behind the top spot. In 2025, the automatic qualifying time for nationals was 41.95, giving Koch a decent shot at qualification. Pitt won a shot for the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay, which finished a couple of seconds ahead of last year’s automatic qualifying time to set a program record at the ACC Championships.
Another swimmer who may qualify for nationals is senior female swimmer Emily Bucaro, who finished seventh in the 1650-meter freestyle at the ACC championships.
Despite team disappointment in the men’s game and their inability to enter the upper echelon on the women’s side, Pitt was able to put forward plenty of individual performances worthy of commendation, and some will get a chance to prove themselves at the national level before the season ends completely. Pitt’s national hopefuls will get a chance at nationwide success in the same pool as the ACC’s tournament from March 18-21.