Pitt swimmers dominate local rivals

Pitt men’s and women’s swim teams welcomed Pennsylvania rivals Clarion and Duquesne to Trees… Pitt men’s and women’s swim teams welcomed Pennsylvania rivals Clarion and Duquesne to Trees Pool Saturday for the final regular-season meet and senior recognition.

Seniors Kristin Brown, Chris Dobson, Jeff Leath, Dave Montgomery, Andrew Sheaff, Andrea Shoust and Kathy Siuda led Senior Day, securing four more wins for the season and pushing the women’s final record to 7-4 and the men’s to 9-3.

For Duquesne, its women’s team racked up 42 points, and its men’s team notched 65. Division II-competitor Clarion nabbed 54 in the women’s meet and 88 in the men’s.

The Panthers scored over 200 points against each opponent.

Brown excelled in her final home meet, donning a fast-skin suit to shatter a 17-year-old pool record in the 200-yard freestyle. The previous record was set by Gail Amundrud of Arizona State during 1979 Women’s NCAA Championships.

Brown’s time of 1:48.38 was merely 0.5 seconds off of her pool record in the event.

“She decided she wanted to go for it,” Pitt head coach Chuck Knoles said.

According to Knoles, the feat was Brown’s first Trees Pool record.

Ruth Sieffert and Siuda joined Brown to sweep the event, placing second and third, respectively.

In the ensuing women’s event, the 100 backstroke, Shoust’s 56.95 guided Pitt to take the top four places, with freshmen Lisa McDonnell, Tiffany Malatesta and Allie Horvath sailing in behind her.

The women’s 200-yard butterfly ended the same way, with Sophie Cross, Laura Rosenberg, Kelly O’Hara and Lauren Myrick stealing the top places for Pitt with times under 2:18.

The men’s meet took on a similar pattern in the 100 freestyle. Patrick Mansfield, with a time of 46.70, out-swam fellow Panthers Warren Barnes, Geoff Morgen and Chris Gallagher for a first-place finish. Barnes, Morgen and Gallagher took second through fourth.

The men of Pitt did not let up on the Dukes or the Golden Eagles in the 100-meter butterfly.

Rene Hjorth, Alex Kubicek and Barnes took first, second and third with a solid leading time of 50.61 seconds by Hjorth.

Panther divers Alex Volovetski, Jeremy Stultz and Eric Becker collected every possible diving point, competing unopposed by any of the visiting schools.

Volovetski, a sophomore, won both the 3-meter and 1-meter events, scoring 375 points over Stultz’s 370.6 on the 3M and 360.3 on the 1M.

Not all events were a breeze for the Panther teams.

Horvath, in the women’s 500-meter freestyle, barely held off Clarion’s Morgan Berkowitz, winning by 0.39 seconds. Horvath clocked in at 5:22.14.

The Pitt men’s 50-meter freestyle lineup of Leath, Kubicek and Adam Plutecki failed to overcome Clarion swimmer Adley Kilgore’s top time of 20.70.

Overall, the Panthers flexed their muscles at the final meet of the season, taking first place for both relay events in the men’s and women’s sides.

According to Knoles, the Panthers chalked up the points to boost their confidence before the Big East Conference Championships.

“We’ll do a lot of resting now with short, fast swims,” Knoles said.

The teams will travel to Long Island, N.Y., Feb. 14 for the four-day long Big East Championships hosted by St. John’s University.