Women splash Irish, men fall short

It all came down to the last event.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were… It all came down to the last event.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were both losing a big meet to Notre Dame going into the 200-yard freestyle relay.

If the women won that last event, the meet would have most likely gone to them.

With fans on their feet and teammates jumping, waving their arms and shouting as loud as they could, the Pitt women not only won the event, but took second place as well, giving them the 150-148 come-from-behind win over Notre Dame on Friday in the annual Pack the Pool event at Trees Pool.

The win marked the first time Pitt won a dual meet against the Irish.

The men, despite some great performances, didn’t fare as well at the end, losing 168-132.

Leading the way for the ladies (4-0, 3-0 Big East) was senior Brittany Stevens, who won three events and was part of the runner-up 200-free relay team that locked in the win for Pitt.

“Brittany Stevens was phenomenal,” Pitt coach Chuck Knoles said. “She had a great meet.”

Stevens was a part of the 400-medley relay that opened the meet and won after a Notre Dame disqualification. New relay exchange touch pads were installed in the pool in order to give more accurate readings. The new touch pads affected both teams, resulting in two Notre Dame and three Pitt disqualifications in the first two relays.

“We need to be much more careful in our exchanges now,” Knoles said.

Other than her two standout relay performances, Stevens won both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events with times of 56.59 and 2:05.53, respectively.

Junior Stacie Safritt also won three events, completing her fourth consecutive meet as a triple winner. Safritt kept her streak alive by winning the 100 free, 50 free and leading off in the 200 free relay.

“[Stacie] definitely had a standout performance,” Knoles said.

“We got a win, but there’s a whole season ahead of us,” Knoles said. “We still have more work, more character building and a lot of hard races to go.”

The men’s team certainly had a hard meet Friday, which started when top diver Jeremy Stultz was injured on a 3M-dive attempt. He received high scores for the dive, but injured his shoulder in the process and had to be lifted out of the water. Stultz didn’t compete in the rest of the meet.

The meet was back-and-forth, Pitt and Notre Dame trading victories throughout, but the No. 17 Irish came out on top, dropping the men to 3-1 on the season, 2-1 Big East.

Three of four members of the winning 400-medley relay team went on to win individual events as well. The relay, comprised of Andrzej Dubiel, Warren Barnes, Geoff Morgan and Adam Plutecki, touched the wall just more than one second before Notre Dame’s top relay team.

Plutecki, a sophomore from Poland, also won both the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley.

Dubiel, the last multiple-winner of the day, won the 100-yard backstroke and came in a close second in the 50 free. His time was less than a half-second behind the winner from Notre Dame.

Freshman Zach Phillips came up with a win in the 1000 free, and was followed by a big finish from senior Scott Shearer, who swam hard in the final laps of the event to come in third with a 9:50.31.

“Notre Dame is a powerful program on both the men’s and women’s side,” Knoles said. “We’re going in that direction. We’ve had a good start, but we ain’t there yet.”