Pittsburgh M/W Both Pick Up Big East Wins Against West Virginia

PITTSBURGH, PA, January 9. The Pittsburgh women’s swimming and diving team won all but two events and defeated Big East rival West Virginia by a final of 180-62 on Saturday afternoon to improve to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 against conference teams in dual meets.

The Panthers also won the Men’s clash with the Mountaineers, 160-5 – 82.5, improving to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big East with the win, per Pittsburgh reports.

Senior Jennifer Koch (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mother of Mercy) and freshman diver Megan McCandless (Bensalem, Pa./Nazareth Academy) won two individual events apiece for the Panthers and Koch had a hand in the 400 medley relay victory as well. In her first dual meet as a Panther, junior Jordan Wallace (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic/Georgia) topped the field in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.09 seconds, tied for the second-best time by a Panther this season.

West Virginia’s Maritza Paredes was a winner in both the 100 and 200 freestyle for the Mountaineers, the only two events WVU won on the day. In the 500 freestyle, sophomore Kristin Brown (East Berlin, Pa./Bermudian Springs) picked up a victory with a time of 5:05.88, more than three seconds quicker than her nearest competitor. The 1000 freestyle was also swum and junior Kate Butrie (Orefield, Pa./Parkland) won the event for the Panthers with a time of 10:23.94.

Sophomore Andrea Shoust (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/White Pines C&VS) touched in first by more than five seconds in the 200 backstroke. Shoust’s time of 2:04.11 was just 0.26 seconds off her season-best time from the last meet at Princeton. Another Pitt sophomore, Lindsey Tiberio (Connellsville, Pa./Greensburg Central Catholic), was a winner in the 200 breaststroke, touching the wall at 2:22.42 and topping teammate Cynthia Snyder (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) by just over a second.

Koch was a winner in both the 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley. Her time in the 200 fly was 2:08.39, leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Panthers and she won the 200 IM in 2:08.92, just missing a season-best time. McCandless won both diving events, the 1- and 3-meter springboard competitions, with 247.95 and 277.58 points, respectively. Pittsburgh outscored West Virginia, 29-8, in the two diving events.

Pittsburgh also had the top times in the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relays. The 200 freestyle relay team of Brown, Kelly Redcay (Reading, Pa./Wilson), Kelly O’Hara (Voorhees, N.J./Timber Creek) and Wallace had the second-best time of the year for the Panthers at 1:36.25. The 400 medley relay team of Shoust, Tiberio, Koch and Redcay won in 3:52.02, more than six and a half seconds better than Pittsburgh’s second-place team.

The Panther’s were likewise dominant on the men’s side. They won all but three of the 13 events competed in the dual meet, including a sweep of the diving events. Three Pitt swimmers and divers – Darryl Washington (Aldan, Pa./Penn Wood), Chris George (Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School) and Jeremy Stultz (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) – won two individual events apiece, while Washington was also part of the 400 medley relay team that took first place.

Chris Hagedorn (50 freestyle), Pablo Marmalejo (200 butterfly) and the 200 freestyle relay team of Matt Drozd, Kyle Williams, Pedro Pinto and Hagedorn won for the Mountaineers but everything else went the Panthers’ way. Washington took both the 100 and 200 freestyle races, breaking 46 seconds in the 100 with a time of 45.81 and winning the 200 free with a time of 1:42.35. George took both long-distance freestyle events, the 500 and 1,000, with times of 4:39.87 and 9:33.71, respectively.

Sophomore Jeff Leath (Mechanicsville, Va./New Community) won by a lengthy margin in the 200 backstroke, touching in at 1:50.62 to defeat Marmolejo by nearly three seconds. Freshman Warren Barnes (Pickering, Ontario/Dunbarton) picked up another nine points for Pittsburgh with a win in the 200 breaststroke. Barnes edged out Felipe Cunha of West Virginia by just eight-hundredths of a second to claim first place.

Marmolejo almost won the 200 IM as well but Pittsburgh junior Jason Miller (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) was up to the challenge, winning in 1:52.36, just 0.62 seconds quicker than the WVU freshman. In the diving events, Stultz, junior Dennis Nemtsanov (Calhoun, Ga./Robert E. Lee/LSU) and senior Devin Aikins (York, Pa./Libertyville/Southern Illinois) finished 1-2-3 on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Stultz had 348.53 points to win the 1-meter competition and edged out Nemtsanov with 352.5 points on the 3-meter board.

Pittsburgh also won the 400 medley relay with the team of Leath, Steve Marcucio (Watertown, Conn./Watertown), Miller and Washington recording a time of 3:23.50 to top WVU by over two and a half seconds.

The Panthers will travel to Maryland next weekend for a two-day meet against the host Terrapins, Big East rival Villanova and the ACC’s North Carolina State Wolfpack.

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