10 Meet Records Fall At Pittsburgh’s Blue-Gold Meet

Knoxville, TN - December 7, 2013: University of Pittsburgh Swimmerduring the 2013 AT&T Swimming Winter National Championships on December 7, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center. Photo By Matthew DeMaria/Tennessee Athletics

Photo Credit: Matthew DeMaria/Tennessee Athletics

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, October 4. TEN meet records fell last night in Pittsburgh as the women’s Blue squad and men’s Gold team took home the annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad meet titles.

Pittsburgh Press Release

The University of Pittsburgh swimming and diving program unofficially kicked off their 2014-15 season with the annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad Meet on Friday, Oct. 3 at Trees Pool.

For the second straight year, both the Blue women and the Gold men won. In the men’s competition, it came right down to the very end and needed a meet record for the win. Entering the final event, the 400-yd free relay, the Blue men held a slight 140-137 advantage. However the Gold men, took first in the event giving it the necessary points for a 148-146 victory. The Blue women coasted to a 173-124 triumph.

The annual event was bookend by meet records, opening with three records falling in the first three swimming events and closing with two in the final three. In between, there were five more meet records that wouldn’t hold up.

Three swimmers, all underclassmen, accounted for two meet records apiece.

Sophomore Zach Lierley (Gold) set the new standard in the 200-yd backstroke (1:49.75) and the 200-yd IM (1:53.08). Classmate Kinga Cichowska (Gold), the school record in both the 100- and 200-yd, is now the meet record holder in both events. She posted times of 1:03.37 and 2:16.03, the later more than three seconds faster than the previous record.

Racing in her first collegiate event, freshman Amanda Richey (Gold) broke the record in the 1,000-yd freestyle in her first event and later did the same in the 500-yd free. Her time of 9:58.78 in the 1,000 not only marked a new meet record, but also set the Pitt freshman record, which was previously held by junior Kaleigh Ritter (10:01.36). Richey’s time in the event was also just 3.5 seconds off the school record.

The only other individual to set a meet record on the day was junior Martin Vogel (Blue) in the 200-yd butterfly in a time of 1:49.83.

Both men and women’s 200-yd medley relays opened the intrasquad with meet records. The Blue squad of seniors Tatyanna Sarjeant, Cam Dixon, Dani des Tombe and junior Mackenzie Meixner kicked off the day with 1:44.87 performance with one of the men’s Blue teams following suit in the very next swim. Seniors Luke Nosbisch and Kourosh and juniors Mack Rive and Sean Heiden made up the record-setting 200 Medley Relay in a time of 1:32.01.

Capping the day off in dramatic fashion was the Gold team’s record performance in the 400 free. Finishing with a time of 3:06.41 was senior Jon Lierley, junior David Sweeney and sophomores Haden Calegan and Bryce Kampfe. If it weren’t for the Gold team’s phenomenal performance, the Blue team of Ahani, Heiden, Vogel and sophomore Jake Tovey would have not only led the Gold squad to victory, but also to a meet record, finishing behind the Gold team by 0.45 seconds.

In the diving events, freshman Meme Sharp swept the 1-meter (278.40) and 3-meter dives (276.53) while Harris Bergman (313.43) and Tony Galante (334.05) won the 3-meter and 1-meter dives, respectively.

Overall, 17 different swimmers won individual events, with seven winning multiple events. In addition to the record setters of Cichowska, Richey and Zach Lierley, Nosbisch, des Tombe, junior David Sweeney, Jr. and sophomore Scott Simmer all were victorious in two events each. Factoring in relays, des Tombe came out as the most decorated swimmer with four first place finishes. Sweeney, Sarjeant, Nosbisch and junior Mackenzie Meixer all won three races.

Pitt opens up the regular season next week, on Saturday, Oct. 11 at home against Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke.

Results: Pittsburgh Blue-Gold Meet

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