Pitt Grabs First Their First Relay Points at NCAAs Since 2002 in the 400 Medley Relay

2023 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

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The Pitt Panthers scored their first NCAA All-America honors in a relay since 2002 on Friday evening in Minneapolis. The team dropped a second from their seed to finish 16th in 2:05.72, grabbing two points and Honorable Mention All-America honors.

Those two points denote a remarkable turnaround for the Panthers under first-year head coach Chase Kreitler, who has national championship pedigree from his previous stops as an assistant at Cal and Texas.

“Tonight was an incredible moment for our team,” Kreitler said after the session. “Not only did we score, our team put together fantastic relay splits.

“We talked all year about peaking mentally and physically at NCAAs and these guys did it. They smashed the team record they set at ACCs by a second and took almost 3 seconds off the team record we started the season with.

“It was truly a special moment celebrating with these guys after we found out we got 16th. This is just the start of where we want to go as a program, but we’re celebrating every step of the way. To have 12 guys at this meet, the most Pitt has ever had, and to have individuals and relays scoring is awesome.”

The relay of Krzysztof Radziszewski, Cooper van der Laan, Marcin Goraj, and Dominic Toledo-Sanchez combined for a 3:05.72.

Toledo-Sanchez, with a near-perfect start (.01 reaction time) needed every hundredth to overtake Harvard anchor Marcus Holmquist (42.25-42.36) and make that history for Pitt.

Pitt’s best 400 medley relay last season was 3:08.73 – and two of those legs graduated. Van der Laan returned, going almost a second faster, and Goraj shifted from backstroke to fly, and outsplit his predecessor.

Splits:

• Raziszewski – 46.37
• Van der Laan – 50.88
• Goraj – 46.22
• Toledo Sanchez – 42.25

Their seed time was also the previous school record.

While Pitt has had plenty of individual All-Americans in the 21 years since their last relay honor, including the program’s only NCAA Champion, diver Dominic Giordano in 2016, relay results have been scarce in that time. In fact, in that time, they’ve only once qualified a relay for NCAAs – in 2021, when the 200 medley finished 20th.

Pitt qualified four relays for the NCAA Championships in 2002, and all of them scored:

• 200 free relay – 14th (1:21.08)
• 400 medley relay – 15th (3:18.52)
• 800 free relay – 15th (6:33.99)
• 400 free relay – 15th (2:57.62)

Pitt qualified four relays for this year’s meet too, though the 400 medley was the first to score. They still have the 400 free relay, as the 24th seed, left on Saturday.

The Panthers currently rank tied-for-30th at the meet with 4 points. Van der Laan finished 16th in the 100 breaststroke earlier in the night to pick up a point, and diver Dylan Reed finished 16h on 1-meter on Thursday for another point.

From the 400 medley relay, only van der Laan is out of eligibility. Radziszewski is a sophomore, Goraj is a junior, and Toledo Sanchez is a senior, but has the option to use his bonus COVID-waiver 5th season of eligibility.