Swimming men, women sink Oakland

Coming off a loss to Notre Dame the previous week, Pitt’s swim teams rebounded with a win over… Coming off a loss to Notre Dame the previous week, Pitt’s swim teams rebounded with a win over Oakland University.

Though this match was more or less a tune-up for the Indiana University Invitational next week, the men and women didn’t overlook the Golden Grizzlies. Both teams won with relative ease, 181-62 and 165-78, respectively. The two squads improve to 3-1 overall.

Senior Jordan Wallace swam well once again for the Panthers, leading them to a sweep of the 50 freestyle with a 23.96 time. She also contributed to the women’s 200 medley along with Karla Leite, Kelly Redcay and Kelly O’Hara with a time of 1:47.75.

Senior Kathy Siuda took first in the 200 breaststroke, and freshmen Leite and Ruth Seiffert finished second and third, leading the Panthers to a sweep of the event. Stacie Safritt took first in the 100 freestyle at 52.17, and Andrea Shoust, O’Hara and Kimmie Baird finished behind.

Tommy Bird highlighted the men’s side with wins in the 50 freestyle (20.62) and 200 backstroke (1:53.13). He also led the 200-medley relay team of himself, Warren Barnes, Chad White and Michael Bernardi, which won with a time of 1:32.99. Darryl Washington, Jeff Leath, Bernardi and Jason Miller swam to a win in the 200-freestyle relay with a time of 1:24.21.

Jonathan Buchanan topped the men’s 1000 freestyle with a 9:31.57 mark and Scott Shearer, Steve Jackson and Nathan McCutcheon completed the top four. Miller paced the 200 freestyle at 1:42.33, and Leath and Andy Kyrejko followed. Chris George pulled away for a 1:53.01 win in the 200 butterfly, and later claimed the 500 freestyle with a finish of 4:39.4.

All of the wins came on a day in which head coach Chuck Knoles tinkered with the lineup a bit in an attempt to get the Panthers more comfortable before the season heats up.

“I was concerned how we were going to do on the men’s side, especially since we were swimming out of our regular order in events that they’re used to or that we’ve won,” Knoles said.

“The freshmen did very well,” he continued. “It’s really nice to have a team like this that’s willing to swim in events they’re not comfortable with. They did it on both men’s and women’s squads today.”

On the springboard, Megan McCandless, Kristin Caiazzo and Colleen Kristobak swept the one-meter event and Caiazzo, McCandless and Kristobak were the top three in the 3-meter event for Pitt’s women’s side.

Alex Volovetski topped the 1-meter board, scoring 330.90 as Jeremy Stultz and Dennis Nemtsanov finished behind. Nemtsanov, Volovetski and Stultz finished one-two-three on the 3-meter.

Oakland picked up individual victories in the women’s 1000 freestyle and 200 fly. The men took the 200 individual medley, 200 fly, 100 freestyle, and 200 breast.

Both Pitt teams head to Bloomington, Ind., for the three-day Indiana University Invitational this weekend. Knoles looks forward to competing against top-caliber talent.

“IU meet’s going to be fun,” he said. “We’re going to rest for a little bit for a couple days, then go and see what we can do there.”

He pointed out that an important part of the meet will be seeing a very good team in action.

“Indiana University’s a great swim team, men’s and women’s, so it’s going a really fun meet because we’re going to have a chance to see what these kids can do.”