Pitt Faces Army Over Two Days For Senior Day

Courtesy: Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH – The University of Pittsburgh swimming and diving faces Army Friday and Saturday in its last home dual meet of the 2020-21 season.

The men’s 3-meter and women’s 1-meter diving events will be the only events on Friday, starting at 7 p.m. The women’s 3-meter and men’s 1-meter kicks off Saturday at 8:45 a.m. followed by the senior day ceremony and then the swimming events beginning at noon.

Saturday’s competition will be streamed though ACC Network Extra.

Senior Day

Pitt has seven seniors that will be honored on Saturday: Ellis Cannon, Judd Fishman, Kathleen Lynch, Shahar Menahem, Armin Remenyi, Ryan Schonbachler and Blaise Vera. The group of seniors have been integral to fifth-year head coach John Hargis’ success at Pitt. As each one has qualified for the ACC Championships every year, the group has racked up numerous academic accolades, etched their names all over the school’s records list and collected points at the ACC Championships.

Women’s Preview

In its lone meet of the season, the women captured a strong 173-127 win over West Virginia on Jan. 13-14. With diving in Morgantown, W.Va. the first day, the divers gave the team a lead heading into swimming. Junior Amy Read shattered the platform diving record, earning first-place and scoring 289.65 points. Read broke the record by more than 20 points, as it was previously held by Krista Jones with a score of 265.58 set in 2019. Junior Serena Buchwald finished second in the platform with a personal-best mark of 260.18. In the 3-meter, Buchwald took second (296.18) while McDaniels placed third (280.35). Reed took home first again in the 1-meter dive with a mark of 297.38.

Diving competed last Saturday at home against Duquesne with more NCAA Zone Diving Cuts. Read had the top score in the 3-meter at 335.55. In the 1-meter, Buchwald earned first with a new personal-best of 316.35

For swimming against the Mountaineers, the women were successful in the relays with a first-place finish in the 200 yard medley relay and the 400 yard Free relay. In their collegiate debuts, freshmen Abby Grottle and Genna Joyce both won multiple events. Grottle led the way in the 500 Free (4:56.29) and 1,000 Free (9:57.18, a personal record). Joyce turned in a time of 2:17.19 for first in the 200 Breast. Both topped last year’s best times by a Panther in the respective events.

Sophomore Daisy Anderson also won in multiple events. She earned first-place in the 400 IM (4:17.88) and had a personal-best time of 2:00.31 in the 200 Fly. The Panthers swept the 100 Breast, as sophomore Tatum Detwiler led the way with a personal-record of 1:02.51. Junior Madison Nalls took the 100 Free with a time of 51.31.

Men’s Preview

The men debuted in the CSCAA Poll at No. 22 after cruising to a 193-107 victory over West Virginia. The men also racked up points in the relays with first-place finishes in the 200 yard medley relay and 400 Free relay. Two school records were broken in the meet.

Freshman Warren Briggs couldn’t have had a better collegiate debut as he broke the men’s oldest school record in the 1,000 Free. Briggs won the event with a time of 9:08.74, topping Eric Limkemann’s previous school-best time of 9:09.30 set on Feb. 21, 2002 in the BIG EAST Championships. Briggs later on recorded another first-place finish in the 500 Free (4:26.28), better than any time in the event from last season by a Pitt swimmer.

Junior Cooper van der Laan broke his own school record (52.71) and set a new Trees Pool record in the 100 Breast with 52.41 to earn first place in the event. Van der Laan also garnered first in the 200 Breast.

Freshmen Marcin Goraj and Javier Zorzano joined the other Panthers to win multiple events in his first-ever collegiate meet. Goraj took the top spot in the 100 Back (47.93) and 200 Back (1:45.39), while Zorzano captured first-place in the 400 IM with 3:56.27

Vera continued his dominance in the Backyard Brawl, winning the 50 Free (19.80) and the 100 Free (43.67) for the third-straight year against West Virginia.

In diving, sophomore Dylan Reed has led the way through two meets. Against WVU, Reed earned first in the 3-meter with a personal-best score of 406.28, which earned him a NCAA A Cut. He placed first in both 1-meter and 3-meter against Duquesne. His 1-meter score (350.70) earned him a NCAA B cut, while his 396.83 mark in the 3-meter was good for another NCAA A cut.

Freshman Jackson Salisbury has been a strong performer in his first two collegiate meets. Salisbury tallied new personal records of 319.65 in the 1-meter and 361.20 in the 3-meter last weekend that were good for NCAA C and B cuts.