Pittsburgh Women Dominate the Pool with Sweep at Carnegie Mellon Relay Meet

CMU Relays

• October 5, 2024
• Pittsburgh, PA
• 25 yards (SCY)
• Scores:
  • Women: Pitt – 120, CMU – 16
  • Men: Pitt – 83, CMU – 53
• Full Results

The Pittsburgh Panthers kicked their season off with a double victory at CMU Relays, winning a combined total of 13 out of the 16 events, but it was the women’s team that really shone as they pulled off a victory by over 100 points in the short relay meet.

The meet featured eight different relay events, which included a number of unusual races in addition to the traditional relays.

Swimmers competed in the 200 medley relay, 500 freestyle relay, 300 butterfly relay, 300 breaststroke relay, 800 freestyle relay, 300 backstroke relay, 400 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

The two schools filled the lanes for every race, although only two relay teams from each school could score per event, with the rest marked as exhibition.

Women’s Meet

The Panthers were on fire in the pool on Saturday, sweeping all eight relays to score the maximum amount of points possible and hardly letting CMU get a point on the board.

The first three races saw Pitt post a 1-2-3-4 finish, almost knocking CMU out of contention as they quickly began racking up the points to forge a wide lead.

Panthers Claire Jansen, Cecilia Viberg, Avery Kudlac and Jill Berger won the 200 medley relay, turning in a time of 1:44.86 and becoming the only squad to go sub-1:45. Their performance also ranks them 44th on the ranking of top times in the event so far this season.

Pitt got to showcase its depth some more in the 800 freestyle relay; the team’s relay squads went 1-2-3 and beat CMU’s top relay by nearly 20 seconds.

Jansen, Kudlac and Berger joined forces once more to secure the victory, this time aided by Emily Bucaro. They posted a time of 7:42.81, which marks the 7th-fastest time this season.

Notable Results

• Pitt freshman Kimmy Shannon split a 1:47.77 as the anchor on the 2nd-place 800 free relay, which was the fastest split in the pool by nearly six seconds.
• The 1st and 2nd-place teams in the 400 medley relay were separated by just .07, as Pitt’s ‘B’ relay won in a time 0f 4:00.00, followed by the ‘C’ relay in a time of 4:00.07.
• CMU’s highest-placing performance was in the 300 breaststroke relay, where the team of Audrey Lambert, Yitian Zhang and Allie Kim took 3rd in a time of 3:23.10.

Men’s Meet

The men’s side of the meet was a much closer competition, as Pitt scored 83 to CMU’s 53. The Panthers won five out of the eight relays, while the Tartans managed to snag three victories to make it a tighter race to come out on top.

CMU claimed the first race of the meet, with the team of Arnav Deshpande, Aaron Lee, Brayden Morford and DJ Lloyd winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:30.88.

Pitt quickly regained the upper hand as they began to rack up victories. The Panthers won by a significant margin in the 800 free relay, with the team of Max Mateazzi, Julian Koch, Guy Frimis and Marcin Goraj posting a time of 6:50.18 to top the Tartans runner-up squad by almost 16 seconds.

The team’s performance in the race landed them at 3rd on the ranking of fastest times so far this season, although not many teams have contested the 800 free relay yet.

Notable Results

• The closest race came in the 300 backstroke relay; Pitt and CMU’s top relays raced into the wall just .06 apart, and Pitt’s team of Goraj, Krzysztof Radziszewski and Eric Camden managed to secure the win in a time of 2:30.28.
• Matteazzi threw down a 1:39.71 as the leadoff on the 800 free relay, which was a personal best time for him and the fastest time across the board by nearly four seconds. He also posted a best time in the 100 back (51.64) as the leadoff in the 400 medley relay.
• Radziszewski posted an opening split of 42.84 while leading off the 500 free relay, which would rank as the 3rd-fastest time this season in the 100 free.