Pitt takes fourth in New York

Swimming and diving season ended with a bang last weekend at the Big East Conference meet in… Swimming and diving season ended with a bang last weekend at the Big East Conference meet in East Meadow, N.Y. Records fell and seniors Jeff Leath, Andrea Shoust and Kristin Brown emerged as Pitt’s stars of the backstroke and freestyle events.

Divers Jeremy Stultz and Alex Volovetski dominated in their events, the 3-meter and 1-meter, respectively, each earning gold medals.

Adam Plutecki, who was expected to take first in both the 200-meter individual medley and 200-meter breaststroke events, withdrew from competition for the championship weekend because of illness, according to the Pitt athletics department.

In spite of Plutecki’s absence, the Panther men’s and women’s teams each ranked fourth out of 12 schools at the conclusion of the four-day meet.

The women’s 800-yard freestyle relay, the first event of the championships, set the stage. The team of Brown, Agnes Mago, Stacie Safritt and Ruth Seiffert took second place, leaving a new school record of 7:19.14 in their wake.

The time, five seconds faster than the previous school record and good enough for NCAA Championships B-cut status, was propelled by Brown’s leadoff leg of 200 yards. Her 1:47.44 topped her own previous school record in the 200-free event.

Brown also placed first and captured the invitational record in the 200-meter freestyle final with a time of 1:47.55 Saturday.

Fellow captain Shoust added to Brown’s successes two events later, winning the 100-meter backstroke with a 55.05 time.

And she didn’t stop there. Shoust, in a final heat with West Virginia, UConn, Rutgers and Villanova swimmers, posted a 1:58.99 to win the 200-meter backstroke, sweeping the backstroke events for Pitt’s women.

Ryann Kishbaugh, who won her consolation heat in the 100-meter backstroke for a ninth-place finish, stood alongside Shoust on the podium for the 200-backstroke, finishing eighth in the finals.

Clinging to a top-four finish as a team, Mago took third place in the last individual women’s race of the meet, the 200-meter butterfly.

Sophomore Margo Ekstrom dove to a sixth-place finish in the 1-meter event, faring 16 places better than her original seed in the competition.

Pitt’s women ended the weekend at 396.5 points, with West Virginia, Rutgers and Notre Dame besting them. The Fighting Irish took the top team result with a total score of 758.

For the men, Leath won the 200-meter backstroke on the final night of competition, becoming the first-ever Pitt swimmer to win a Big East crown in one event three years in a row. His time of 1:45.89 placed him more than 0.6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Leath also ranked third in the 100-meter backstroke and seventh in the 50-meter freestyle, where Pitt sophomore Patrick Mansfield topped him by 0.04 seconds for sixth place at 20.64 seconds.

On the diving board, Volovetski took the Wednesday’s 1-meter competition, breaking his own school record with 374.5 points.

Stultz finished close behind Volovetski in the 1-meter, placing fourth with 323.95 points. Friday, Stultz set a new school record with a first-place finish of his own in the 3-meter dive with 368.45 points.

Volovetski finished third in the same event, garnering 331.65 points.

“If [Stultz] can carry it on to NCAAs, he will become an All-American,” Pitt head diving coach Julian Krug said. “And if [Volovetski] dives like he dove the 1-meter, he’ll go on to be All-American.”

Both men will have the chance to make qualifying bids for NCAA Nationals at their zone championships the first weekend of March.

The men racked up a total of 357 points for their fourth place finish, and West Virginia triumphed with 765.5 total points. Notre Dame and Rutgers were sandwiched between the rivals in the team results.

Individual swimmers close to earning NCAA championship bids will compete one last time at the Ohio State Last Ditch Meet Saturday.