Men and women pick up wins over Washington

With her team clinging to a three-point lead with only two events left in the meet, Ryan… With her team clinging to a three-point lead with only two events left in the meet, Ryan Redman propelled the Pitt women’s swimming and diving team to a 126-111 victory against the No. 21-ranked University of Washington Huskies with a first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.

“I just went in and went out faster than I have all season,” Redman said. “Having your entire team there cheering you on makes it exciting, and makes it a positive kind of pressure.”

Redman finished with a personal-best time of 2 minutes, 20.71 seconds in the event.

“If you’re going into a battle, and you want to have somebody on your side, Ryan Redman is the person to go into battle with, because she’s a warrior,” head coach Chuck Knoles said.

Redman’s performance in the 400-yard medley relay, as the breaststroker, sparked a comeback performance by her team and another first-place finish.

“It made me feel a lot more comfortable and confident going into the 200-yard breaststroke, having such a good split in the medley relay,” she said.

Redman’s win in the 200-yard breaststroke, coupled with a third-place finish from teammate junior Cynthia Snyder, forced the Huskies to play for both first- and second-place finishes in the final relay.

Panther co-captains Jenny Livingstone and Carolyne Savini, along with sophomore Kelly Redcay and freshman Kristin Brown, took first in the 400-yard-freestyle relay to end the meet.

“I knew that if we did well in our breaststroke event, then we would be able to pull it out in the relay,” Savini said. “Ryan had an awesome swim.”

Savini also won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:50.96.

She credited her victory to knowing the walls and being able to swim hard into her turns.

The Huskies didn’t enter any divers in either of the diving events, giving the Panthers a 32-point lead to start the meet.

“Fortunately for us, it’s the sport of swimming and diving,” Knoles said.

Livingstone captured first in the 50-yard freestyle with a season-best 24.08 seconds.

With the win, the Panthers improved their record to 3-1.

Pitt men’s team 134, Washington 103

The No. 18 men’s swimming and diving team (3-1 overall) upset the No. 14 Huskies at home on Saturday with a win of its own.

“I expected to win both meets,” Knoles said. “I didn’t really expect the men’s meet to be as close as it was.”

The Huskies were again without divers, but they managed to capture the first swimming event of the meet, the 400-yard medley relay.

Senior co-captain Eric Limkemann stopped Washington from rallying, with a win in the 1,000-yard freestyle.

“I do my homework,” Limkemann said. “I knew that they had a decent fast guy and a really good [500-yard freestyle] swimmer. [But he] swims up to the 500, I swim the long races down. So, I knew I had him in the back half of the [1,000-yard freestyle].”

The Huskies then went on to win three straight races.

Pitt sophomore Jason Miller knocked Washington back out of rhythm with a first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly.

After Derek Rose won the 100-yard freestyle for the Huskies, freshman Jeff Leath and Limkemann put in back-to-back victories for the Panthers in the 200-yard backstroke and the 500-yard freestyle, respectively.

“All of our kids are swimming tired,” Knoles said. “We had some great, tired swims; we had some great, tired wins.”

“We’re at that point in the season where the training is real intense,” Limkemann said. “We’re getting beat up pretty bad [in practice].”

Both Pitt teams are next in action at the Indiana University Invitational, which takes place from Nov. 21-23.