Swimming sinks Cincy Bearcats

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have swum three matches so far this season,… The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have swum three matches so far this season, two have been against Big East opponents, and none of them have been close.

In the last weekend in October, both squads hosted St. Bonaventure on Saturday and then welcomed conference foe Syracuse on Sunday to Trees Pool. The men out-swam St. Bonaventure 168-74 while the women won 169-75. And things weren’t much different against the Orange a day later; the men won 150-71 and the women were victorious 156-86.

The swim teams’ hot start — the women have outscored their opponents by 164 points and the men have won by a 153 point margin — was put to the test this past weekend when the Panthers traveled to Cincinnati for their first match away from the friendly waters of Trees.

Pitt 192.5, Cincinnati 47.5 (women)

The Panthers started the meet off with success on the diving board and never looked back. Freshman Margo Ekstrom won the 1M dive while fellow freshmen Alyssa Ferraro placed third with 175.95 points.

The diving diaper dandies kept it going as Pitt swept the 3M boards as Ekstrom, freshman Hanna Bratton and Ferraro all recorded top-three finishes.

That success carried over to the lanes as the 400-medley relay team captured the first swimming event victory with a time of 3:56.37. Seniors Andrea Shoust and Kristin Brown were the ends of the relay squad and junior Brittany Stevens and sophomore Ruth Seiffert rounded out the foursome.

All four members of the winning relay team went on to win individual races as well. Seiffert was first with a victory in the 1000 free with a time of 10:32.32. While Brown followed with a win in the 200 free at 1:49.94.

Later in the meet, Shoust claimed individual victory in the 50 free and junior Kelly O’Hara finished just two tenths of a second behind Shoust for a second-place finish. Stevens and freshman Sophie Cross also provided a one-two finish in the 200 butterfly with times of 2:12.62 and 2:13.56, respectively.

Brown and Shoust each earned their third first place finish of the day in their next events — a 51.87 second finish in the 100 freestyle for Brown and an impressive 2:03.07 finish in the 200 backstroke for Shoust.

The Panthers finished the match with victories in the 500 free, 200 breast, and the 400 free relay to close out their second-conference victory and improve their overall record to 3-0 (2-0 Big East).

Pitt 147, Cincinnati 84 (men)

While the men’s squad didn’t dominate its side of the meet as handily as the women, the end result was still a decisive victory and improving to an identical 3-0 (2-0) record.

From the diving boards, Pitt claimed first and second in the 1M and 3M with solid performances by Aleksandr Volovetski (two first place finishes) and Eric Becker (two second place finishes).

The 400-medley relay team opened the swimming events with a first-place finish with a time of 3:26.98. Junior Scott Shearer kept the winning streak moving along in the 1000 free while freshman Andrew Natali claimed second in that event.

Junior Chris George kept the run of first-place finishes with a victory in the 200 free.

Four-hundred medley members senior Jeff Leath and junior Warren Barnes each earned their second first-place finishes in the 200 back and the 200 breast, respectively.

Both squads will be back in action when they travel to the South Bend, Ind., to take on another conference opponent in Notre Dame on Saturday morning.