University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Big East Championships Preview: Men's Butterfly
2/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Big East Championships Preview: Men's Butterfly
2/18/2003
PITTSBURGH ? The Big East Conference will have its first men's 100 butterfly champion since 2000 and its first 200 butterfly champion since 1998 at this weekend's meet, thanks to the graduation of Syracuse's Djordje Filipovic, who won a combined six butterfly titles (four 200s, two 100s) during his career.
Men's Butterfly
This year's 100 butterfly finals will have a host of Virginia Tech swimmers vying for the title along with West Virginia's Pedro Pinto and Pittsburgh's Jason Miller (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley). The Hokies' Anders Frahm is the top-ranked swimmer in the 100 fly with a qualifying time of 48.99 seconds at the Nike Cup. Two spots behind him is his teammate, Steve Tozer, who swam it in 49.42 seconds at the same race. Pinto is ranked second with a time of 49.23 seconds and Miller, a freshman, swam the 100 fly in 49.44 seconds at the 2002 Pittsburgh Invitational. Virginia Tech's Brian Piantadosi is ranked fifth, just four hundredths of a second behind Miller.
Not to be outdone, Pittsburgh had eight swimmers qualify for the Big East Championships in the 100 fly, including Miller, Michael Bernardi (Middlesex, N.J./Middlesex), Ken Shelhorse (Gaithersburg, Md./Damascus), Randy Gertenbach (El Centro, Calif./Paradise Valley), Brian Bonczek (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley), Darryl Washington (Aldan, Pa./Penn Wood), Tommy Bird (Charleston, W.Va./Capital), and Chad White (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg). Out of the 31 swimmers that qualified for the Big East meet, 14 come from Pittsburgh or Virginia Tech.
Eight more Panthers qualified for the 200 fly, including Miller, who is second in the Big East Conference with a time of 1:50.12, just 12 hundredths of a second behind leader Gregory Danner of St. John's. Tozer, Frahm, and Trevor Jamerson of the Hokies are ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
Shelhorse and White are tied for 15th in the conference with identical qualifying times of 1:53.44. The other Pittsburgh qualifiers are Bernardi, Gertenbach, Bird, Bonczek, and Ryan Jackson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Perry Traditional Academy).
Tomorrow's Preview: IM and Relays
