University of Pittsburgh women’ and men’s swimming and diving teams hosted Bucknell University on Saturday at Trees Pool. The Panthers took 28 of 32 events and came out with a pair of wins: 195-100 for the women and 185.5-109.5 for the men.
The medley relay began with Pitt’s Blair Wegescheide (26.76), Kinga Cichowska (29.31), Lauren Mills (26.15), and Danyel Johnson (23.16) combining for 1:45.38 to win the women’s relay. Bucknell’s Emma Levendoski (27.14), Ashley Henderson (30.59), Julianna Foss (25.78), and Lauren Perry (24.58) went 1:48.09 for third. The men’s relay featured the winning Panther quartet of Mack Rice (23.18), Luke Nosbisch (25.78), Kourosh Ahani (21.83), and Sean Heiden (20.48) with 1:31.27. Bucknell’s “A” relay was DQed so Chris Devlin (23.77), Tarik Lott (27.00), Triston Loux (23.20) and Kyle Bloom (21.41) picked up the relay points for the Bison.
Panthers Amanda Richey (9:51.92) and Spence Gray (9:43.38) topped their respective fields in the women’s and men’s 1000 free. The Bison’s highest scorers were Stephanie Koziol (10:55.46) and Sam Rutan (9:53.84).
Dani des Tombe of Pitt won the women’s 200 free in 1:52.95; she was followed by teammate Kaleigh Ritter (1:55.18) and Bucknell’s Dani Potis (1:55.96). The men’s race featured a tie for first place between Bucknell’s Louis Behnen and Pitt’s David Sweeney; both touched at 1:41.33.
The Bison’s Levendoski swept the backstroke events, winning the 100 in 57.35 and the 200 in 2:02.82. On the men’s side, Rice led a 1-2-3 Panther sweep in the 100 back; he clocked a 50.55 ahead of teammates Joey Notarianni and Ahani. Then in the 200 Pitt’s Zach Lierley (1:50.36) got the win over Bucknell’s Behnen (1:51.58).
Cichowska of Pittsburgh won the 100 breast (1:02.52), followed by teammates Katie Fernander and Maddie Marcelle. The first Bison to the wall was Gina Gautieri (1:08.83). Fernander was the winner in the 200 breast with 2:19.49. Teammate Charlene Yuan touched second; Gautieri (2:26.98) was third. Pitt’s Nosbisch won both men’s breaststroke races: he finished the 100 in 57.17, just edging Bucknell’s Ben Seketa (57.25), and took the 200 in 2:04.13, this time 2.8 seconds in front of runner-up Seketa.
Emily Bolek of Pitt came from behind in a thrilling women’s 200 fly race. She outsplit Amber McDonnell of Bucknell by .95 over the last 50 and won 2:08.59 to 2:08.68. She also eclipsed teammate Athena Summa who took third in 2:08.74. Summa picked up a win in the 100 fly, though, as she out-touched Buckell’s Foss 57.65 to 57.96.
The 200 fly excitement at Trees Pool didn’t end with the women’s heat as the men put on a show of their own. Bucknell’s Erik Heinemann (1:53.92) held off a 29.0 final charge from Pitt’s Jacob Tovey (1:53.93) and picked up the win by 1/100. His Bison teammate Loux was just behind the leaders, clocking a 1:54.08 for third. It was a different cast of characters in the men’s 100. Pitt’s Martin Vogel (50.11) was the first of five Panthers to the wall ahead of Bucknell’s Bloom (53.20).
Pitt cleaned up in the sprint freestyles. Johnson led the way in the 50 with a 23.85 ahead of teammates Emily Murphy, Alex Iwanicki, and Tia VanLandeghm. Melissa Pocsai (52.21) provided the Panthers with a win in the 100 over teammates Jessica Nederlanden and Murphy. Rachel McGoff was the fastest Bison in both the 50 and the 100, touching in 24.96 and 53.94, respectively.
Heiden (21.07) and Sweeney (45.95) provided the Panthers wins in the 50 and 100 free, respectively. Bucknell’s Steven Grune (21.54) picked up a second in the 50, while his teammate Heinemann (47.47) touched fourth in the 100.
The women’s 500 free saw another 1-2-3 Panther sweep; Ritter led the way this time with 5:01.73, followed by des Tombe and Bethany DeWitt. Perry of Bucknell was fourth with 5:09.67. On the men’s side, Behnen (4:35.34) and Devlin (4:38.26) led a 1-2 sweep for the Bison.
Bucknell’s Henderson scored the winning points in the women’s 200 IM with 2:08.24; her teammate Devlin (1:55.26) won the men’ race. Pitt swam the event in exhibition, with Cichowska (2:05.52) and Rice (1:53.44) clocking the fastest women’s and men’s times, respectively.
Pitt’s Meme Sharp and Harry Bergman won both diving events. Sharp scored 280.53 in 1-meter and 298.13 in 3-meter diving; Bergman racked up 334.35 in 1-meter and 377.78 in 3-meter.
With Pitt swimming exhibition, the final relay points went to Bucknell. In the women’s 4×100 free, Perry, Levendoski, Maddi Marcheskie, and Caroline Edelman (3:37.12) got the 11 points. In the men’s race it was Grune, Bloom, Behnen, and Heinemann (3:09.37). Pitt’s fastest women’s quartet (Nederlanden, Mills, Iwanicki, and des Tombe) clocked a 3:32.73. The Panther men Sweeney, Heiden, Jon Lierley and Ahani went 3:05.83.
