Pitt Swimming ACC Championships

[Nfred38]

The men's and women's diving as well as the women's swimming championships begin today with the men's 1 meter diving, women's 3 meter diving, the 200 yard medley relay, and the 800 yard free relay. Last year the women's team finished 10th in the conference with 359 points, 1,133.5 points behind the winner UVA. The men's team finished last year's meet with 520 points, good enough for an 8th place finish. The winner of the men's meet was NC State with 1250 points.

 

[Nfred38]

Panthers end night one in 11th place with 90 points. Pitt recorded a ninth place finish in the 200 yard medley relay highlighted by a 22.78 anchor leg from sophomore Emma Wilson, moving up one place from their tenth place seed. Later on, the 800 free relay made up of freshman Abby Grottle, sophomore Daisy Anderson, junior Madison Nalls, and senior Shahar Menahem placed eleventh with a time of 7:18.92, improving their seed time of 7:22.32. Prelims begin tomorrow at 11 am with the 500 free, 200 IM, and 50 yard free taking place.

 

[Nfred38]

In the 500 yard free, freshman Abigail Grottle swam a 4:49.26, a season best and good enough for 20th place which earns her a spot in the C-Final tonight. Fellow Pitt swimmers Abby Licht (Fr), Jacqueline Tinneny (Jr), and Madison Nalls (Jr) all went season best and improved their seeds by placing 38th, 29th, and 27th respectively.

 

[Nfred38]

Finishing out the prelims session for today was the 200 yard individual medley and the 50 yard free. Pitt had two swimmers compete in the 200 IM, senior Shahar Menahem and freshman Anneliese Hohm. Menahem completed the race in 2:02.20 good enough for a season best and 34th place. Hohm too went a season best in 2:07.40, earning her a 55th place finish. Up next was the 50 yard free which was swum by freshmen Sophie Yendell and Afrodite Agathokleous, as well as sophomores Jillian Schulte, Emma Wilson, Tatum Detwiler, and Kate Fuhrmann. While nobody qualified for this evening's finals session, each swimmer swam a season best time which is promising for the young sprint squad.

 

[ThePanthers]

Thanks for posting this

 

[Nfred38]

The evening started off strong with freshman Abigail Grottle finishing 23rd in a time of 4:49.76, garnering the panthers 2 points. Three women divers scored points on the evening as well. Lead by junior Amy Read in 15th place, the panthers came away with 21 diving points with contributions from freshman Emma Gravgaard (20th place) and Serena Buchwald (21st place). The men's Dylan Reed also scored 6 points on the back of a 19th place finish which will counts toward the men's meet which will be swum next week. The swim of the day, however, came in the last event, the 200 free relay, where the 11th seeded panthers moved up four spots from their seed to take 7th place. Standout performances by all four of the panthers included a 22.78 leadoff leg by Sophie Yendell, followed by a 22.54 by Kate Fuhrmann, 22.90 by Tatum Detwiler, and a 22.50 anchor leg by Emma Wilson. The panthers dropped 2.47 seconds from their seed time which was the most time out of any team in the event. More importantly, it gave the panthers 46 points and a lot of momentum heading into the second full day of the meet. Tomorrow morning's slate of preliminary events includes the 100 butterfly, 400 individual medley, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, and the 100 backstroke.

 

[ThePanthers]

I'll admit out of all pitt sports swimming and diving I follow least. Are they improving overall? I follow on Twitter and continue to see pitt records beat. But it doesn't seem to translate in the standings. Wasn't the men's team top 25?

 

[Nfred38]

I'll admit out of all pitt sports swimming and diving I follow least. Are they improving overall? I follow on Twitter and continue to see pitt records beat. But it doesn't seem to translate in the standings. Wasn't the men's team top 25?

Women's team is having a bit of a down year but has a roster full of young talent and has some talented swimmers in this recruiting class as well. They've pretty consistently ranked near the bottom of the ACC but with the emergence of some really good divers and youth on their side, they could begin to work their way up the rankings in the coming years. It doesn't help that the ACC is one of, if not the deepest conference in the country for swimming and diving. The men, who compete next week, have a few extremely talented swimmers such as Cooper Van Der Laan and Blaise Vera who will not only place very high at the conference meet, but will also likely qualify for the NCAA championships. Right now the overall state of the men's program is much better than the women but both have a lot of growing to do if they are going to seriously compete at the conference and national level.

 

[Nfred38]

This evening the panthers saw their best ACC finish yet by a swimmer coming from sophomore Daisy Anderson who finished the 400 individual medley in a time of 4:15.46, good enough for 12th place. Also scoring in the event was senior Shahar Menahem who came in 20th with a time of 4:19.43. These were the only two individual events swum at finals by Pitt swimmers, however in the morning's preliminary heats, many swimmers dropped time from their season bests including Kayla Graham, Jillian Schulte, Kathleen Lynch, and Sophie Yendell in the 100 butterfly, Genevieve Joyce and Jacqueline Tinneny in the 400 IM, Abby Licht and Madison Nalls in the 200 free, Joyce in the 100 breaststroke, as well as Graham and Emma Wilson in the 100 backstroke. Nalls finished in 25th place, one spot away from making it to finals. While Pitt only had two swimmers score individually tonight, five divers came away with a combined 67 points which gave the panthers a much needed boost in the point rankings. Placing were divers Amy Read (6th), Claire McDaniels (9th), Emma Gravgaard (14th), Meredith Gould (19th), and Serena Buchwald (24th). Finishing off the evening for the panthers was the 400 medley relay where they placed 10th, moving up one spot from their seed. While they added time from their seed time, some luck in the form of a Florida State disqualification helped the panthers to a strong finish. Currently Pitt is in 11th place with 277 points and is looking forward to a strong final day in order for them to hopefully catch Miami and finish in the same spot they had last season. Tomorrows preliminary events begin at 11 am with the 200 backstroke, 100 free, 200 breaststroke, and 200 butterfly. the 1650 free will be swum in the afternoon with the top 8 seeded swimmers swimming in the evening session.

 

[Nfred38]

The panthers womens swimming and diving team finished up their season at the ACC sonference championships with 360 points, earning them an 11th place finish. The lone team that Pitt finished ahead of is Boston College, a team that does not carry any scholarship athletes. While the season was less than ideal, some of the few bright spots from the year were the emergence of freshmen Sophie Yendell, Genna Joyce, and Abby Grottle as legitimate future point scorers at the conference level. Along with the freshman, sophomores Daisy Anderson, Kate Fuhrmann, Tatum Detwiler, and Emma Wilson will be looking to build off of strong second seasons and really step up as leaders of the team next year. Those swimmers along one of the ACCs stronger diving teams lead by junior Amy Read will look to turn things around next season. While the 2020-2021 season was not a particularly great one for the womens swimming and diving team, next season should be better based mostly on the swimmers that did make an impact this week as well as the talented freshman they have coming in. Stay tuned next week for coverage of the mens ACC championship meet.

 

[mike412]

Let’s be realistic. The ACC isn’t the Big East and the team that dominated the BE before ND joined isn’t competitive in the ACC. The top 20 swimmers in each event score points. I think Pitt had only one swimmer in the top 10 in one event. Having returnees who finished 16th, 18th and 19th doesn’t make me optimistic for the future.

 

[Nfred38]

Let’s be realistic. The ACC isn’t the Big East and the team that dominated the BE before ND joined isn’t competitive in the ACC. The top 20 swimmers in each event score points. I think Pitt had only one swimmer in the top 10 in one event. Having returnees who finished 16th, 18th and 19th doesn’t make me optimistic for the future.

The top 24 score in every event and those who were scoring points were all underclassman so at least they aren't losing many of the few points they got this year. Also many of those swimmers did not hit lifetime bests this year and if they are able to get back to performing their best, there is room to move up in the conference. It is difficult to find positive things about the womens swimming team in particular, but those are the ones that I could find. Also, just the fact that the men have been slowly climbing up in the national rankings could bring more attention to the program as a whole and could potentially assist the women in recruiting. They do have a Sunseri (yes that Sunseri) coming in as a freshman next year with Olympic Trial cuts which will immediately help on medley relays where the panthers really struggled this season.

 

[Nfred38]

Tonight the mens swimming portion of the ACC championships kicked off and kicked off in a huge way for the panthers. In the first event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, the panthers exploded for a school record and NCAA A-cut time of 1:24.20. The panthers also moved up two placed from their 9th place seed up to 7th. This secures the squad the opportunity to swim at the NCAA meet, the first time a Pitt relay has done so since 2002. The relay consisted of juniors Stephen Hopta and Cooper Van Den Laan, as well as seniors Blaise Vera and Ellis Cannon. Both Hopta and Cannon are products of local schools Peters Township and Woodland Hills respectively. To show just how deep the ACC is, Pitt's time would have been good for the 9th fastest time in the country last season, yet it got them just seventh in their own conference this year. Moving onto the only other event of the evening, the 800 free relay. The panthers placed 10th in a time of 6:27.82, a drop of 8.67 seconds from their seed time which was the second biggest drop out of any of the relays. While the panthers only beat one other team, Boston College, three of the four swimmers went lifetime bests which bodes well for the rest of the meet. The swimmers in the relay were as follows: Marcin Goraj (Fr), Armin Remenyi (Sr), Dominic Toledo Sanchez (So), and Serhii Ahadzhanian (Jr). Tomorrows preliminaries begin at 10 am where the 500 free, 200 individual medley, and 50 free will be contested. Pitt has numerous swimmers in scoring position and senior Blaise Vera will be looking to improve his national top-15 time in the 50 free and potentially compete for the gold medal in that event.

 

[Nfred38]

Following the Thursday's preliminary heats, Pitt will have three panthers swimming individual events in this evening's finals session. Those swimmers include, Warren Briggs (16th in the 500 free), Wojciech Dutkowiak (24th in the 500 free), and Blaise Vera (3rd in the 50 free. While Pitt does not have any swimmers competing for points in the 200 individual medley which they have had the past few season, getting two swimmers into the 500 was a step in the right direction for the program, especially considering both of them are underclassmen, Briggs a freshman and Dutkowiak a sophomore. Briggs will be competing in the B-final which means at worst, barring a disqualification, he will score 11 points. The biggest storyline of the evening though would be senior Blaise Vera being seeded 3rd heading into finals with a time of 19.30 and looking to be the first ever Panther swimmer to win gold at the ACC conference championships. Seeded ahead of him are Louisville sophomore Abdelrahman Sameh at 19.14, and Virginia freshman, and Hershey native, Matt Brownstead at 19.19. Vera's career best is a 19.10, however he may not be fully rested for this meet, aiming his focus more towards the NCAA championship meet. Either way the race tonight should be a good one and hopefully the panthers can come away from the evening with some much needed points as they currently sit in 9th place with 120 points after the conclusion of last night's relay swims as well as last weeks diving portion of the meet. Along with the previously mentioned individual swims, the 200 free relay will be contested tonight with the panthers seeded 10th. The finals session will begin at 6 pm.

 

[ThePanthers]

Thanks for the summary! Yeah, I saw last night the relay team qualified for the NCAAs for the first time in 19 years. Hopefully we can keep showing improvement.

 

[Nfred38]

Thursdays finals were certainly good to the panthers. After going into the meet with zero swimmers projected to score in the 500 free Pitt placed two swimmers, Wojciech Dutkowiak and Warren Briggs, into the C-final and B-final. From there they both improved upon their morning swims and placed even higher than they went into finals seeded at. Ultimately a 15th and 21st place finish culminated in 16 points for Pitt when they were seeded to score none. On top of that, Georgia Tech and Duke, two teams that Pitt will be battling against for 7th in the conference, had off days and their swimmers scored lower than what they were projected. As previously mentioned, the panthers did not have any swimmers qualify for finals in the 200 individual medley. The main event of the night was of course the fastest event in swimming, the 50 free. The title for fastest man in the ACC was up for grabs as the previous years winner, NC State's Nyls Korstanje, is home in Sweden preparing for the Olympic games. Pitt senior Blaise Vera went into the final seeded third and needing a big swim to pull out the victory. While he fell short of the gold medal, Vera scored a second place finish in a Pitt record time of 19.03. Blaise has initially broke the Pitt 50 free record back in 2018 and has rebroken it several times since then. This will virtually guarantee Vera a spot at the NCAA championships for the third year in a row where he will attempt to break the elusive 19-second barrier. Along with Vera's second place finish came 28 much needed points for the panthers. Finishing off the evening was the 200 free relay where the panthers jumped up two spots from their 10th ranked seed to finish 8th. In the process they scored victories over Duke and Notre Dame, another team that Pitt has been battling hard with all week. They finished in a time of 1:18.06 backed by huge swims by seniors Blaise Vera (19.30) and Ellis Cannon (19.17). This finished gave the panthers another 44 points, giving them a total of 88 points on the day which was much more than what was projected going into the meet. Tomorrow Pitt will be looking to close the gap against Notre Dame and Georgia Tech with the potential to score big in events such as the 100 butterfly, 400 individual medley, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, and the 100 backstroke. The preliminaries will begin at 10 am.

 

[Nfred38]

An electric morning this Friday morning for the Panthers as they had swimmers qualify for the finals in every event except for the 100 backstroke. Senior All-American Blaise Vera kicked the morning off with another Pitt record in the 100 butterfly in a time of 45.44 which has him going into finals seeded 3rd. Also squeezing into an evening swim was junior Serhii Ahadzhanian who placed 23rd with a time of 46.85. Moving on to the 400 individual medley, while the panthers did not have anybody seeded in the top-24, they had two freshmen sneak into the c-final this evening with 23rd and 24th place finishes by Cameron Dafoe and Javier Zorzano Jover. This event has scored a lot of points for the panthers in the past but with swimmers Samy Helmbacher and Eben Vorster lost to graduation, it was crucial that Pitt gets young talent to replace them and be able to score points. Again, the 200 free did not see any Pitt swimmers in the initial top-24 seeds, but sophomore Wojciech Dutkowiak improved his seed time by over two and a half seconds to touch in 23rd place with a time of 1:36.83. While he is the only panther competing for points in the event this evening, other swimmers Dominic Toledo Sanchez (1:37.38), Warren Briggs (1:38.14), and Owen McLaughlin (1:38.32) had personal best swims which placed them much higher than where they were seeded. So far the best event this championship meet for the panthers has to be the 100 breaststroke. Australian junior Cooper Van Der Laan broke his own Pitt record yet again and finished in a time of 51.94, good enough got the 3rd spot in this evenings final. The panthers did not stop there however. North Allegheny product Jerry Chen exploded for a time of 53.21, over a second under his previous best mark set at last years championships, which set him up to score in the b-final at 14th place. Finally, transfer Flynn Crisci dropped over a second and a half from his best time to land as the top seed in the c-final at 17th with a time of 53.56. This event may score Pitt the most points out of any individual event all week so they must take advantage of the position they're in and also hope that teams like Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, and Duke have less than stellar swims this evening. The final event for the morning session was the 100 backstroke. While nobody was able to move into scoring position here for the panthers, freshman Marcin Goraj finished in 26th with a personal best time of 47.85. Hopefully he or junior Stephen Hopta can have a breakout swim this evening leading off the panthers 400 free relay because the panthers seem to be set at the three other strokes. This evenings finals session will begin at 6pm with the 100 butterfly and will conclude with the 400 medley relay.

 

[ThePanthers]

Keep em coming!

 

[Nfred38]

While the morning session went great for the panthers, the evening session had its ups and downs. The first event of the night was the 100 butterfly where senior Blaise Vera lowered his school record once again with a time of 45.29, good enough for 4th place. He came into the day seeded 13th but after the prelims session was seeded 3rd going into finals. While Vera moved down one spot, junior Serhii Ahadzhanian moved up one place from his 23rd seed to finish 22nd, scoring 3 points. Next up in the 400 individual medley, freshmen Javier Zorzano Jover and Cameron Dafoe placed 22nd and 24th. This is one more point than they were seeded to get going into the evening. Zorzano Jover finished in a time of 3:54.04 and Dafoe in 3:57.72. The mens 200 free was next, where Wojciech Dutkowiak placed 24th in a time of 1:37.41 after being placed 23rd in the prelims. The main event for the panthers this evening was the 100 breaststroke. Junior Cooper Van Der Laan pulled out another outstanding swim this evening with another school record time of 51.52, placing 3rd in the event. In the b-final Jerry Chen placed 15th with a time of 53.43 and in the c-final Flynn Crisci continued to drop time finishing in 53.31, placing 18th. In the final event of the evening, the panthers pulled together four outstanding swims to finish 5th in the 400 medley relay. Sadly, the relay was disqualified for what was likely an early take off and took away zero points from the event. Even had they taken last it would have given the panthers 32 points, but with a disqualification they receive nothing. Looking forward to tomorrow, Pitt will be looking to once again be looking to try and score points in each event, which they have a very legitimate chance of doing. Tomorrows events include the 200 backstroke, 100 free, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, and the 1,650 free. The preliminary session will begin at 10 am.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 719
1. Louisville, University of
2. North Carolina State Universit
3. VA Tech
4. Virginia, University of
5. Florida State University
6. North Carolina, University of,
7. Notre Dame, University of
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
9. Pittsburgh, University of
10. Duke University
11. University of Miami (Fl)
12. Boston College

 

[CrazyPaco]

Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 719
1. Louisville, University of
2. North Carolina State Universit
3. VA Tech
4. Virginia, University of
5. Florida State University
6. North Carolina, University of,
7. Notre Dame, University of
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
9. Pittsburgh, University of
10. Duke University
11. University of Miami (Fl)
12. Boston College

For perspective, here was the most recent CSCAA national rankings for each of these schools (as of feb 11):

1. Louisville #7
2. North Carolina State #5
3. VA Tech #13
4. Virginia #10
5. Florida State #15
6. North Carolina #18
7. Notre Dame #17
7. Georgia Tech #22
9. PITT #25
10. Duke
11. Miami
12. Boston College

So Pitt finishes ninth in the ACC, but that is still nationally top 25 good.

 

[Nfred38]

Sorry for the delay in saturday night's results. Freshman Marcin Goraj placed 21st in the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:44.68, dropping seventh tenths of a second from his best time this season, getting Pitt 4 points out of the event. Once again senior Blaise Vera finished with an ACC medal after a 3rd place finish in the 100 free, coming in at 42.21. Vera just missed his own Pitt record but will have the opportunity to beat it and finally breaks the 42-second barrier at NCAAs come mid-march. The 200 breaststroke was very kind for the panthers which had four different panthers score in the event. Breakout star Cooper Van Der Laan took home 3rd place finishing at 1:52.76. So far this season, Van Der Laan has taken over two seconds off of the previously record held by former Pitt star Samy Helmbacher. Van Der Laan was also the highest scorer that will be back next season, meaning he may be the favorite to win next season, which would give Pitt it's first ever ACC champion swimmer, diver Dom Giordano won ACC and NCAA gold in 2016). Also scoring in the event was sophomore Jerry Chen (16th-1:57.40), and freshmen Javier Zorzano Jover (21st-1:58.29) and Flynn Crisci (23rd-1:59.02). Pitt had a pair of upperclassmen score in the 200 yard butterfly with 2016 Olympian and senior Armin Remenyi placing 10th at 1:44.61, and junior Serhii Ahadzhanian in 1:47.00. Earlier in the day, Pitt also had all three of their entrees score in the 1650. Wojciech Dutowiak placed 15th in a personal best time of 15:18.73, while talented freshman Warren Briggs placed 18th in 15:21.71. Finishing in 23rd placed would be Pine Richland product and Pitt senior Ryan Schonbachler at 15:29.55. The meet concluded with the 400 free relay where the panthers placed 9th in a time of 2:54.92. The relay was highlighted by a great swim as usual by Blaise Vera, but also had a great second leg split by sophomore Dominic Toledo Sanchez who has made huge improvements this year and will look to build on that to become a legitimate scorer at the conference meet next year. Ultimately Pitt placed 9th at the meet after placing 8th last season. 2020 however caught Georgia Tech on a down year, which they more than bounced back from this season. While finishing 9th out of 12 teams does not look promising, Pitt is still a top-25 team and will begin making a name of themselves on the national stage sooner than within the conference due to just how fierce the ACC is.

 

[Nfred38]

I will be creating another thread following Pitt Swimming recruiting more as well as one highlighting how the panthers perform at the NCAA championships. Thanks for following along and taking an interest in an often overlooked sport that our Pitt Panthers seem to be headed in the right direction with!

 

[mike412]

Thank you for all of these very informed summaries. I will be looking forward particularly to your recruiting articles. It would be nice to start having two or three Blaise era’s in each class.

 

[CMUandPitt]

Yeah, dang, thanks for the write-ups. I like that on here we've got a few deep experts on all of the sports. I'm happy to take the lead on the track side.

Do we know if the Olympic sports use their full complement of scholarships? I know it's limited as it is, but I actually don't know if we even go to that limit.

Second, I seem to remember Trees being a pretty good facility -- how does it stack up within the conference? Is it a detriment to us? I don't know much about the strength of PA as a recruiting base for the sport but I do know that NA in particular has churned out 2-3 D1 athletes per year, which is pretty wild for a public school.

 

[pittchagg]

Yeah, dang, thanks for the write-ups. I like that on here we've got a few deep experts on all of the sports. I'm happy to take the lead on the track side.

Do we know if the Olympic sports use their full complement of scholarships? I know it's limited as it is, but I actually don't know if we even go to that limit.

Second, I seem to remember Trees being a pretty good facility -- how does it stack up within the conference? Is it a detriment to us? I don't know much about the strength of PA as a recruiting base for the sport but I do know that NA in particular has churned out 2-3 D1 athletes per year, which is pretty wild for a public school.

All of the Olympic sports have the full allotment of scholarships - I believe they started doing that shortly after joining the ACC.

A quick review indicates that Trees is solid compared to our conference peers. It’s old, so I don’t know what it’s like under the hood, and there are some weaknesses in terms of not having a separate diving area and it lacks moveable bulkheads to separate the pool into smaller areas, but the size, capacity, etc. look pretty good. They also just renovated the locker and team rooms a few years ago.

 

[Nfred38]

Yeah, dang, thanks for the write-ups. I like that on here we've got a few deep experts on all of the sports. I'm happy to take the lead on the track side.

Do we know if the Olympic sports use their full complement of scholarships? I know it's limited as it is, but I actually don't know if we even go to that limit.

Second, I seem to remember Trees being a pretty good facility -- how does it stack up within the conference? Is it a detriment to us? I don't know much about the strength of PA as a recruiting base for the sport but I do know that NA in particular has churned out 2-3 D1 athletes per year, which is pretty wild for a public school.

Trees is regarded as a good pool, however it lacks some in that it does not have a desperate diving well as well as not having the capacity to host large collegiate invites. I do know that WVU just built a state of the art facility and PSU has one in the plans so that may hurt Pitt in terms of local recruiting, however they do not do as much in state recruiting as one would expect. PA is one of the top 5 states in terms of producing swimming talent and I remember seeing a few years ago that Pittsburgh specifically was one of the top 20 areas in the country for high school swimming so it is a bit concerning that Pitt does not do as well with local recruiting. They can never seem to land the big time local prospects but do seem to land a few second tier ones every so often. Junior World Champion Josh Matheny is a senior at Upper St Clair now and is heading to Indiana Universiry next year, but there are similar examples of outstanding top-50 swimmers every year that Pitt can’t seem to hold onto.

 

[pittchagg]

Trees is regarded as a good pool, however it lacks some in that it does not have a desperate diving well as well as not having the capacity to host large collegiate invites. I do know that WVU just built a state of the art facility and PSU has one in the plans so that may hurt Pitt in terms of local recruiting, however they do not do as much in state recruiting as one would expect. PA is one of the top 5 states in terms of producing swimming talent and I remember seeing a few years ago that Pittsburgh specifically was one of the top 20 areas in the country for high school swimming so it is a bit concerning that Pitt does not do as well with local recruiting. They can never seem to land the big time local prospects but do seem to land a few second tier ones every so often. Junior World Champion Josh Matheny is a senior at Upper St Clair now and is heading to Indiana Universiry next year, but there are similar examples of outstanding top-50 swimmers every year that Pitt can’t seem to hold onto.

Indiana does have a really, really top class facility. I took a look at WVU’s new facility and it doesn’t look out of this world to my (very uneducated) eye compared to Trees.