Pitt swimming and diving dominates

The competition between Pitt and Cincinnati was over well before the end of Saturday’s… The competition between Pitt and Cincinnati was over well before the end of Saturday’s swimming and diving home opener.

The Pitt men’s and women’s teams dominated the Bearcats with scores of 146-89 and 140-89, respectively.

After winning nearly every event, Pitt decided to make some of their races exhibitions, so as not to run up the score. Had Pitt decided not to exhibition several of the events it won, the margin of its wins would’ve been much larger.

Pitt senior Jeremy Stultz topped his own school record of 396.67 in the 3M diving competition, winning the event with a score of 406.28. He also won the 1M event with a 379.95.

“I think our men divers just really did the trick,” Pitt head coach Chuck Knoles said. “Every male diver that competed made their qualifying standard for the Big East.”

The Bearcats didn’t bring any male divers with them, giving the men the chance to work on individual skills rather than placing against competitors. Having that chance paid off.

“Even if they [Cincinnati] would’ve had divers, it would’ve been difficult for them to score,” Knoles said. “To have that many qualifiers this early in the season, it really speaks well for our team.”

Other than Stultz, the male divers to compete and qualify were Eric Becker, Jason Erdeljac, Colin Forner, Charles Hauser and Zane McLain.

The talent within the women’s swim team was evident all day. The women won every event and swept the first three places of nine events.

Junior Stacie Safritt was a triple-winner, leading the way with wins in the 50-yard freestyle, 100 free and 400 free relay. This is the third meet in a row that Safritt has been a triple-winner. She did it on the road at St. Bonaventure and again at Syracuse.

Freshman Kristin McMullan and senior Kelly O’Hara tied in the 50 free to sweep the event, while McMullan followed sophomore Megan Scully to finish out the top three in the 100-meter freestyle.

Also standing out for the Pitt women was freshman Katie Cutrell, who won the 1,000-yard freestyle by more than 13 seconds and also came in first in the 500 free event.

Sophomores Margo Ekstrom and Ruth Seiffert rounded out the multiple-event winners for the women. Ekstrom won both the 1M and 3M diving events, and Seiffert won the 200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley, an event in which all four of Pitt’s competitors were body lengths ahead of anyone in red and black.

Other winners for the Panthers were Sarah Looney (200 free), Margo Ekstrom (1M and 3M diving), Brittany Stevens (200 butterfly), Ryann Kishbaugh (200 backstroke) and the members of the 400 medley (Kishbaugh, Laura Barnes, Stevens and Megan Sculley) and 400 freestyle (Safritt, Sculley, McMullan and Agnes Mago) relays.

“We had a very nice performance by the men and the women,” Knoles said. “We are very tired so I was on pins and needles to see how strong these kids would be to swim fast while tired. I was very enthused that they could come in there and swim fast while they were tired, which is what we need to do to get better.”

The men also produced winners in the majority of their events, losing only four events to the Bearcats.

Freshman Alex McLaren was the front man for the Panthers. He was the only swimmer to win multiple individual events while also contributing to the winning 400-yard free relay.

McLaren won the 200 backstroke and the 200 free, a close race in which he just out-touched teammate and competitor Andy Kyrejko by half a second with a time of 1:44.32.

At the end of the meet, senior Warren Barnes also came through with a win in a race that was tight from the start. He beat out Cincinnati’s Jeremy Peter by 0.69 seconds.

Other winners included Zach Phillips (1,000 free), Adam Plutecki (200 IM) and members of the 400 freestyle relay team (Andrzej Dubiel, Plutecki, McLaren and Patrick Mansfield).

The Panthers will host Notre Dame at home on Friday at 3 p.m. Coach Knoles is hoping to “pack the pool” with supporters.

“We’re really excited about Friday,” Knoles said. “We could use as much help from our fans as we can get.”