Pitt swimmers come up short in ECAC Championships

With less than a month until the NCAA finals begin, Pitt hosted the Eastern College Athletic… With less than a month until the NCAA finals begin, Pitt hosted the Eastern College Athletic Conference open swimming and diving championships at Trees Pool.

Many NCAA Championship qualifiers and hopefuls competed in the meet, as the men of University of Maryland-Baltimore County won their second straight team ECAC Championships while the University of New Hampshire were tops for the women.

The Panthers were optimistic going into the ECAC Championships, but only finished with six swimmers placing in four events.

This meet came just days after the College Swim Coaches Association of America final rankings placed the Pitt men at No. 17 after their dominating Big East season.

Senior Michael Grube finished third in the men’s 50-yard freestyle. Grube was ranked with the top time going into the ninth event of the ECAC Championships.

His meet time of 21.13 seconds was just one-hundredth of a second away from the second place finisher.

Junior Adam Webber placed 13th in the 50-free with a time of 21.69 seconds.

Webber preceded the 50-free with a fourth place finish in the men’s 200-yard individual medley.

Sophomore Brian Bonczek finished 15th in the men’s 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall with a time of 51.99 seconds in the meet’s 19th event.

Two women had a strong showing for the Panthers in the 100-yard breaststroke. Juniors Ryan Redman and Sarah Grant placed 22nd in the event.

Ryan Redman, going into the 100-breast ranked first, finished with a time of one minute, 5.05 seconds. This was good for a second-place finish. Sarah Grant followed four seconds later with a 22nd place finish.

Pitt is now in training for the NCAA Championships. The men will travel to Texas for the March 20 meet, while the women’s will be held in Alabama March 27.