Pitt divers Volovetski and Stultz both place at Zones

Men’s Diving

Pitt divers Alex Volovetski and Jeremy Stultz dove to greatness two… Men’s Diving

Pitt divers Alex Volovetski and Jeremy Stultz dove to greatness two weekends ago at the NCAA Diving Regional competition.

The Zone A championship, held at the Rutgers Aquatic Center March 2 to 4, was one of five Zone competitions for Division-I divers across the country.

Volovetski, a sophomore, was Pitt’s top dog on the first day off the 1-meter board, placing second in the field of 25 men.

His score of 347.45 points in the preliminary round seeded him at first place going into the finals. Stultz, a junior, was hot on his teammate’s heels with a 318.50 – good enough for a three seed.

After the final round for the 1-meter, Volovetski finished with 634.1 points, for second place. Stultz rounded out the podium with his third-place finish worth 627.5 points.

Day two brought Stultz his turn at glory, as he led Pitt to its second top finish of the weekend.

He collected 350.15 points for a two-seed in the 3-meter event, which propelled him to an overall 707.15 score for his eventual second-place finish. His performance on the 3-meter broke his own school record.

Volovetski, sitting with 312.40 preliminary points on the 3-meter, splashed into seventh place with 625.60 points.

Mike Alderman from Penn State topped his competition in the finals of the 1-meter, racking up 687.7 points, while LaSalle’s Karo Isajan reined champion on the 3-meter after day two with 735.55 points.

On the final day of competition, only four divers, none from Pitt, tried their luck off of the platform dive. Princeton’s Stuart Malcolm nabbed the win to conclude the championships.

Other schools with divers finishing near the top of their events included Yale, Rutgers, UMass and the Naval Academy.

During the course of the Zone meet, divers competed for spots at the NCAA competition. Both Volovetski and Stultz qualified and are competing at the national championship, which began yesterday and ends tomorrow at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Women’s Swimming

A pair of Panthers made history last week at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, shattering two school records and marking this year the first since 1987 that more than one Pitt swimmer have been invited to the meet.

Kristin Brown and Andrea Shoust, both senior captains, ended their seasons with fast times in two individual events each. Brown competed in the 200- and 500-meter freestyle events, and Shoust took on the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.

Brown crossed the 50-meter championship pool at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center 10 times on the first day of competition, stretching to a 30th-place finish in the 500. Her 4:48.43 time marked a new school record, which she had previously set just weeks before at the Big East Championships. Adrienne Binder of Auburn won the 500 with a time of 4:36.96.

Brown and Shoust both dove in on March 9 to chalk up some more races for Pitt on the national stage.

Brown nabbed 22nd place overall in the 200-meter freestyle, giving Pitt its second school record at the meet. She recorded a time of 1:47.38, and the race closed out her final season of NCAA eligibility.

Lacey Nymeyer triumphed in the event, presenting Arizona her winning time of 1:43.49, just 0.23 seconds faster than second-place challenger Emily Kukors from Auburn.

Following the 200-freestyle event, Shoust took to the pool in the 100-backstroke. She sprinted to a 31st-place finish with her time of 55 seconds even.

Auburn’s Rachel Goh set a new pool record at the aquatic center, stroking her way to a 100-back first-place finish in 51.97 seconds.

In the last race of her college career, Shoust ranked 27th in the 200-backstroke on the final day of competition. She cranked out a 1:58.46 time, as Florida’s Gemma Spofforth, a freshman, won with a time of 1:52.96.

Auburn, which has won the team title for five of the past six years, ruled the meet with its total team score of 535 points. Arizona, California, Stanford and Georgia rounded out the top five teams at the championships.

Pitt record-holder Adam Plutecki will conclude the swimming season this weekend, competing at the NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship. He will race in the 100- and 200-breastroke events, both in which he holds Pitt records.