University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Big East Championships Preview: Men's Backstroke
2/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Big East Championships Preview: Men's Backstroke
2/14/2003
PITTSBURGH ? Seventeen Big East titles in 20 years, including six consecutive victories, are not enough for the Pittsburgh men's swimming and diving team, which will go after No. 18 next weekend in Long Island, N.Y.
Men's Backstroke
One of the more interesting categories for the Panthers is the backstroke. With six qualifiers for the Big East meet in the 100 back and five in the 200 back, points will be crucial in the two races on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Virginia Tech has the top three swimmers in the 100 back heading into next week's Championships. Steve Tozer, Chris Lindberg, and Anders Frahm lead the conference ahead of Rutgers' Josh Van Norman and Pittsburgh's Michael Bernardi (Middlesex, N.J./Middlesex), who leads the Panthers with a time of 50.78 seconds at the Pittsburgh Invitational. Three other Panther swimmers round out the top 11 in the conference.
Freshmen Tommy Bird (Charleston, W.Va./Capital) and Eric Bugby (Easton, Pa./Notre Dame) and junior Ken Shelhorse (Gaithersburg, Md./Damascus) have all come in with times under 51.5 seconds and should score at the Big East meet.
Shelhorse is the conference's top swimmer in the 200 back, which will be swum on Saturday. He has the Big East's only NCAA B-cut time at 1:45.94 at the Pittsburgh Invitational. That time is 3.19 seconds faster than his nearest competitor ? Lindberg of the Hokies. Shelhorse finished second in the 100 back and first in the 200 back at last year's Big East Championships.
Bird is ranked fourth in the 200 back with a time of 1:50.27 and is joined by Bugby, Bernardi, and Eric Limkemann (New Haven, Ind./Woodlan) as Panthers with A-times for the Big East.
