Divers headline Pitt at Big Easts

Men’s diving stole the spotlight once again as Pitt’s men’s swimming and diving team took… Men’s diving stole the spotlight once again as Pitt’s men’s swimming and diving team took third, and the women took fourth at the Big East Championships, held Feb. 20 to 23 at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in East Meadow, N.Y.

“The men were able to improve from last year, so that’s very rewarding,” coach Chuck Knoles said.

“The women fell a bit short, but you can’t plan for things like the flu to hit the team,” he said, referring to Ryann Kishbaugh and Stacie Safritt, who came down with the illness for the last day of competition and were unable to compete.

“We surely had the athletes there to be able to do it, and I really feel good about the overall performance of the team.”

Junior Alex Volovetski earned the title of Most Outstanding Diver for the first time in his career as he won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. The honor has been given to a Pitt diver every year for the last four years.

Stultz, who won last year, took fourth in both diving events this year.

“I’m very, very proud of the divers,” Knoles said. “Alex really did a nice job in this competition, and it’ll be fun to see him and Jeremy at the zone meets and hopefully at NCAAs.”

In addition to Volovetski’s honors as an athlete, Pitt diving coach Julian Krug received the Men’s Diving Coach of the Year award. This is the fourth time Krug has been honored in the past seven seasons.

Day one started with women’s diving as sophomore Margo Ekstrom placed fourth in the 1M diving after getting seventh in the preliminaries. She was joined by teammate Alyssa Ferraro, who finished seventh.

The rest of the day consisted of relays. The men’s 200 medley relay team of Andrzej Dubiel, Warren Barnes, Adam Plutecki and Patrick Mansfield placed third with a time of 1:29.19, breaking a school record that was previously set 10 years ago.

Both of the women’s relays, the 800 freestyle and the 200 medley, ended up in fifth place, giving the team 56 points.

The free relay team was made up of Safritt, Agnes Mago, Erin Meehan and Megan Sculley, while the medley relay team was comprised of Kishbaugh, Cookie McIntyre, Brittany Stevens and Mago.

The men’s 800-freestyle relay team was disqualified because of an early start.

At the end of the day, the men were in 10th place overall, and the women were in second, only behind Notre Dame, which would end up winning the championship.

The second day started off with the 500-yard freestyle event, in which Pitt had four swimmers, all of whom ended up in the consolation heat of the finals. One of those was Mago, placing 13th with her season-best time of 4:56.30.

The 200 individual medley was next, an event in which the Pitt men shined. Plutecki ended in fourth in the finals, with Barnes behind him in seventh. Other highlights of the day included Kelly O’Hara’s sixth-place finish in the 50 free, Dubiel’s sixth-place and personal-best time in the 50 free (20.72) and two third-place finishes in the 200-freestyle relay.

On the third day, Mago stood out from the beginning, placing second in the finals of the 400 IM at 4:18.70. That time was five seconds faster than she went in the preliminary race and broke her own school record in the event.

“I am very proud of Agnes,” Knoles said, “and [proud] to be coaching such a talent that works through the adversity of a shoulder injury to be at the top form of her life.”

Later on in the day, McIntyre set a freshman record in the 100-yard breaststroke and came in fourth in the event.

“Cookie has a tenacious trainer and is willing to swim every event for the team,” Knoles said.

“Her breaststroke has improved from good to very good, and we are looking forward to her next three years.”

In the same event on the men’s side, Barnes and Plutecki touched in second and third, respectively.

“Warren Barnes had the meet of his life,” Knoles said. “(A 53.9 is) faster than any time he’s had in the past, and he’s in the top 10 in the country right now with that time.”

Also on Friday, Dubiel, another freshman, finished second in the 100 backstroke, and Stevens tied for fourth in the 100 butterfly.

Then Kishbaugh and Safritt got the flu.

Nonetheless, the day still featured some great performances from the Panthers. Plutecki garnered a second-place finish in the 200 breaststroke, with Barnes finishing right behind him. Mago and McIntyre came in second and fourth, respectively, in the 200 butterfly.

“We just had a [ton] of lifetime bests and school records,” Knoles said. “Anytime you can do that, you’ve had a good meet.”

Next weekend, the Panthers will host the Eastern College Athletic Conference meet at Trees Pool.