Off Topic: Swimming & Diving

[Saboteur]

As one who has spent countless hours in Trees Pool over several years, one of the most telling barometers of the decline of Pitt swimming & diving has been the boards carrying Pool and team records.
Pitt does not own a single Trees Pool record. (Unless they set one in last 6 weeks).
The team records go back....some as far as the 1990's.
Quietly however, a new team is on board (pun) and the waters at Trees are heating up.
The ACC is a splendid swim conference. Pitt just finished the conference tourney with their highest finish ever (10th) and highest point total.
That may not seem like much, but it is. Recruiting is the lifeline....but coaching is huge at that level and Pitt made the right moves when it changed course (pun intended) in the coaching ranks.
Pitt never gets credit locally for making Trees available to the public.
NEVER!
But it should because the people at Pitt have been extremely generous to Western PA in making Trees available.
We can argue that they should....and I agree...the public deserves a place at the table for public dollars...but Pitt has gone above and beyond the normal.
Good job by all at Pitt swimming & diving.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

Here ya go
http://www.theacc.com/page/championship_c-swim

nc st champs in both
men 10th(same as last year)
women 9th(10th last year)

 

[levance2]

Pitt never gets credit locally for making Trees available to the public.
NEVER!
But it should because the people at Pitt have been extremely generous to Western PA in making Trees available.
We can argue that they should....and I agree...the public deserves a place at the table for public dollars...but Pitt has gone above and beyond the normal.
Good job by all at Pitt swimming & diving.

What are you talking about?

 

[CrazyPaco]

As one who has spent countless hours in Trees Pool over several years, one of the most telling barometers of the decline of Pitt swimming & diving has been the boards carrying Pool and team records.
Pitt does not own a single Trees Pool record. (Unless they set one in last 6 weeks).
The team records go back....some as far as the 1990's.
Quietly however, a new team is on board (pun) and the waters at Trees are heating up.
The ACC is a splendid swim conference. Pitt just finished the conference tourney with their highest finish ever (10th) and highest point total.
That may not seem like much, but it is. Recruiting is the lifeline....but coaching is huge at that level and Pitt made the right moves when it changed course (pun intended) in the coaching ranks.
Pitt never gets credit locally for making Trees available to the public.
NEVER!
But it should because the people at Pitt have been extremely generous to Western PA in making Trees available.
We can argue that they should....and I agree...the public deserves a place at the table for public dollars...but Pitt has gone above and beyond the normal.
Good job by all at Pitt swimming & diving.

The pool records also reflect better competition in recent years coming to Pitt after ND and Louisville joined the Big East.

Public dollars didn't pay for Trees Hall and it hasn't paid for any of Trees Pool's renovations and certainly haven't supported the Swimming & Diving program. The Commonwealth's subsidies don't even cover the cost of the in-state tuition discounts that Pitt doles out to its citizens every year. Pitt has been screwed by the state since its founding when the Commonwealth reneged on promises when it granted its charter. In more recent history, it has continually gotten screwed on the 1966 state-related agreements. Pitt is not publicly owned or operated. Asides from its stated institutional missions, Pitt really owes the public nothing and should feel no obligation to open Trees to the public if it isn't in the Swimming & Diving program's best interest to do so. As you stated, Pitt almost never gets any credit when it does go above and beyond its obligations to the public anyway.

 

[chethejet]

I go back to the early 60"s as a kid watching my brother on the Pitt swimming team. Actually Pitt had a pretty good program back then.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I go back to the early 60"s as a kid watching my brother on the Pitt swimming team. Actually Pitt had a pretty good program back then.

Sort of. They were a regionally good program for sure. The early 60s teams broke a lot of school records. The men's team has won a lot of conference titles in its history (41 total in the men's program's history), most of these in the Eastern Collegiate Swimming Association and the Big East: 1934, 1938, 1940, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

How good were those conferences though? When you look at national finishes, you have these all time results:
Pitt Men's NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships Team Finishes (t=tied for place)
1938 15-t
1953 19-t
1954 22-t
1977 27-t
1979 29-t
1980 28-t
1981 29-t
1989 39-t
1990 40-t
1991 32-t
1994 37
1995 38-t
1997 31
2000 35-t
2002 24
2003 36
2004 32
2007 31-t
2008 34-t
2016 22-t

 

[bwh05]

New coach & we just finished the locker and lounge renovation. We're going to get a lot better in the near future.

Also, Paco is right we were winning bad conferences.

 

[chethejet]

As to Pitt back then, yes they were a eastern team but they were pretty good. Beat some ranked teams. Not a Indiana but keep in mind Trees Pool was brand new and was state of the art at the time.

 

[chethejet]

Actually that period say late 50's to mid sixties Pitt had maybe the best overall sports teams. Football was pretty good, BB with Dave Roman and Generalovich was pretty good. Pitt swimming was pretty good and the wrestling program was a national program.

 

[singregardless]

... Except reigning 3M individual NCAA champion, Dominic Giordano, just broke a men's Trees Pool record in the 1M dive in January against the Mountaineers. I know, because I was there.

He took down the Trees men's 3M record last year.

http://pittnews.com/article/108092/...n-dominic-giordano-no-expectations-no-stress/

http://pittnews.com/article/115240/sports/other-varsity-sports/giordano-breaks-record-pitt-wvu/

 

[Saboteur]

... Except reigning 3M individual NCAA champion, Dominic Giordano, just broke a men's Trees Pool record in the 1M dive in January against the Mountaineers. I know, because I was there.

He took down the Trees men's 3M record last year.

http://pittnews.com/article/108092/...n-dominic-giordano-no-expectations-no-stress/

http://pittnews.com/article/115240/sports/other-varsity-sports/giordano-breaks-record-pitt-wvu/

Thanks and I stand corrected. He is a great diver.

 

[LivinWell]

As one who has spent countless hours in Trees Pool over several years, one of the most telling barometers of the decline of Pitt swimming & diving has been the boards carrying Pool and team records.
Pitt does not own a single Trees Pool record. (Unless they set one in last 6 weeks).
The team records go back....some as far as the 1990's.
Quietly however, a new team is on board (pun) and the waters at Trees are heating up.
The ACC is a splendid swim conference. Pitt just finished the conference tourney with their highest finish ever (10th) and highest point total.
That may not seem like much, but it is. Recruiting is the lifeline....but coaching is huge at that level and Pitt made the right moves when it changed course (pun intended) in the coaching ranks.
Pitt never gets credit locally for making Trees available to the public.
NEVER!
But it should because the people at Pitt have been extremely generous to Western PA in making Trees available.
We can argue that they should....and I agree...the public deserves a place at the table for public dollars...but Pitt has gone above and beyond the normal.
Good job by all at Pitt swimming & diving.

Pitt set 11 men and 3 women's records this year.

 

[Saboteur]

The pool records also reflect better competition in recent years coming to Pitt after ND and Louisville joined the Big East.

Public dollars didn't pay for Trees Hall and it hasn't paid for any of Trees Pool's renovations and certainly haven't supported the Swimming & Diving program. The Commonwealth's subsidies don't even cover the cost of the in-state tuition discounts that Pitt doles out to its citizens every year. Pitt has been screwed by the state since its founding when the Commonwealth reneged on promises when it granted its charter. In more recent history, it has continually gotten screwed on the 1966 state-related agreements. Pitt is not publicly owned or operated. Asides from its stated institutional missions, Pitt really owes the public nothing and should feel no obligation to open Trees to the public if it isn't in the Swimming & Diving program's best interest to do so. As you stated, Pitt almost never gets any credit when it does go above and beyond its obligations to the public anyway.

Pitt set 11 men and 3 women's records this year.

They are getting much better. Now it's time to chip away at Trees record times.

 

[Ol_Roy]

Trees pool records will always be tough to obtain since they had rotating championships there and the WPIAL swimming being held there. When you have top level high schoolers coming in that often go on to swim at Cal and Stanford you will have many records being broken by non collegiate yet olympic caliber swimmers. This is in addition to the fact that they rarely swim at trees pool tapered. Until ACC champs or some other higher level competitive meet is held there pool records will not be broken in large amounts. Just the nature of when the people want to swim fast, which usually is at some neutral site for ACCs as they gear up for NCAAs.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Trees pool records will always be tough to obtain since they had rotating championships there and the WPIAL swimming being held there. When you have top level high schoolers coming in that often go on to swim at Cal and Stanford you will have many records being broken by non collegiate yet olympic caliber swimmers. This is in addition to the fact that they rarely swim at trees pool tapered. Until ACC champs or some other higher level competitive meet is held there pool records will not be broken in large amounts. Just the nature of when the people want to swim fast, which usually is at some neutral site for ACCs as they gear up for NCAAs.

As far as I know, the only Trees Pool records held by high schoolers are the 1000 and 1650 frees.

 

[HOF Coach]

Enjoyed watching many swim meets during my undergraduate years in support of about 15 fraternity brothers who competed in swimming and diving. Those athletes (men and women) trained very hard and were as dedicated to representing PITT well as any other varsity sport was. Fond memories...

 

[Saboteur]

As far as I know, the only Trees Pool records held by high schoolers are the 1000 and 1650 frees.

I'm trying to recall if the record board carries the high school or college. Seems to me they only carry the college name.
And as far at the Panthers are concerned, the team records (until this season) had a fair amount of dust on them.