Swimmers provide strong finish in NCAAs

With a splash and a kick, the waves of the future crested this weekend for the Pitt women’s… With a splash and a kick, the waves of the future crested this weekend for the Pitt women’s swimming and diving team.

Four swimmers and one diver represented the nationally ranked Panthers at the Women’s NCAA Championships held in Atlanta.

Pitt’s quartet of swimmers competed in the 400-meter free relay, finishing 21st while missing the top eight by just 2.5 seconds. The team paired two seniors, Jordan Wallace and Kelly Redcay, with junior Kristin Brown and freshman Stacie Safritt.

“We were disappointed we didn’t score higher,” Pitt head coach Chuck Knoles said, “but we still had three of our four swimmers reach lifetime bests and found a lot of positives to build on.”

Wallace, a Pittsburgh native, raced in the 50-meter free as well, placing 46th. The team leader finished with a time of 23.25 seconds, less than a second off the eighth-place finisher.

“It was very exciting for Jordan and our team to compete in the NCAA Championships,” Knoles said. “We hadn’t sent a team [to the NCAA Championships] in almost 20 years so it was nice to have athletes there to compete as we build our program.”

Brown touched the wall just one-half of a second behind Wallace in the 50-meter free. She also placed 36th in the 200-meter free and 43rd in the 100-meter free.

“Kristin was able to learn some great things by competing at this level this year,” Knoles said. “For all of our underclassmen competing, it was a good experience. They know what to expect in the future.”

The Big East Championship’s Most Outstanding Diver Kristin Caiazzo competed in both the 1- and 3-meter events. The sophomore standout finished 38th in the 3-meter and 40th in the 1-meter.

“Kristin used the experience to really work on the difficulty of her dives,” Knoles said. “She’ll be able to really expand her list of options for her dives in future performances.”

The weekend competition saw the Auburn Tigers take their fourth title since 2002.

Up next for Pitt’s swimming and diving program is the men’s NCAA Championships, held in Athens, Ga. The splashing takes place March 23-25.