Notre Dame in Pole Position in Both Men’s, Women’s Races at Big East Champs

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, February 27. WHILE the Notre Dame women dominated the first night of swimming at the Big East Championships, their male counterparts turned a Louisville disqualification into a day-one lead of their own.

The Notre Dame women started the night off right as Emma Reaney (1:45.88), Kelly Ryan (1:45.75), Suzanne Bessire (1:49.05) and Jaime Malandra (1:50.16) won the women's 800-yard free relay with a 7:10.84. Villanova's Hayley Edwards, Roxanne Tammadge, Katrin Heider and Kaisla Kollanus finished second in 7:12.73, while Louisville's Kelsi Worrell, Breann McDowell, Johanna Cowley and Eszter Povazsay claimed third in 7:14.96.

Louisville's Alex Burtch (1:35.95), Joao De Lucca (1:33.06), Albert Lloyd (1:36.60) and Samuel Hoekstra (1:36.72) then clipped the meet record in the men's 800-yard free relay with a 6:22.33. That swim beat the Cardinals' 2012 effort of 6:22.70, and cleared the NCAA A cut. Notre Dame's Frank Dyer, Kevin Hughes, John McGinley and William Bass placed second in 6:23.40, also an NCAA A cut. Pittsburgh's Hussein Medhat-Mohamed, Otto Pagel, Avery Warrington and David Sweeney took third in 6:32.47.

Louisville's men won two straight as Nikolas Sachs topped the men's one-meter diving event with 316.45 points. Notre Dame's Nicholas Nemetz (310.05) and Connecticut's Grant Fecteau (304.45) took second and third.

Notre Dame's women picked up a second win as well as Jennifer Chiang won the women's three-meter diving event with 329.85 points. Louisville's Hannah Gadd (329.00) and Notre Dame's Allison Casareto (320.20) took a close second and third in the event. With the win, Chang became the first diver to ever four-peat the women's three-meter event in Big East history.

The Fighting Irish swept the women's events as Lauren Scott (25.46), Emma Reaney (27.29), Kim Holden (23.40) and Catherine Galletti (22.59) raced to a time of 1:38.74 to win the women's 200-yard medley relay, just missing the conference record and NCAA A cut time. Louisville's Kristina Brandenburg, Gisselle Kohoyda, Tanja Kylliainen and Grite Apanaviciute took second in 1:39.34, while Pittsburgh's Joanna Budzis, Camille Dixon, Veronica Lee and Danielle des Tombe wound up third in 1:41.18.

Louisville then had a tough break with a disqualification in the men's 200-yard medley relay. Notre Dame's Bogac Ayhan (22.37), Cameron Miller (23.73), Frank Dyer (20.58) and Zach Stephens (19.65) won the race in 1:26.33. Pittsburgh's Adam Maczewski, Luke Nosbisch, Kourosh Ahani and Alexander Rodenkirk took second in 1:27.34, while Connecticut's Keith Piper, Lachezar Shumkov, Diguan Pigot and Kyungsoo Yoon earned third in 1:29.98.

Women's Team Scores
Notre Dame 141
Louisville 107
Pittsburgh 75
Connecticut 71
Rutgers 70
Villanova 60
Cincinnati 54
Seton Hall 45
Georgetown 40
Providence 28

Men's Team Scores
Notre Dame 133
Pittsburgh 95
Connecticut 92
Louisville 65
Cincinnati 58
Georgetown 56
Seton Hall 54
Villanova 50
Providence 42

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