Gold Wins Women's Blue-Gold Meet In Final Event

Friday, October 13

Pittsburgh, Pa.

3:30 PM

Pitt

Blue/Gold Meet

Gold Wins Women's Blue-Gold Meet In Final Event

10/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

Oct. 13, 2006

Final Stats

PITTSBURGH-- With the score tied at 130 heading into the last event of the day, excitement filled Trees Pool as the Pitt swimming and diving team opened its season with its annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad meet. Despite a total of eight meet records dropping, Pitt's gold team, led by co-captain Kristin Brown edged out Andrea Shoust`s Blue team, 143-134.

Freshman Lisa McDonnell (Columbia, Pa./Hempfield) anchored the 200 free relay team and the touched the wall with a 23.59 split, giving the gold team the win and setting a Blue-Gold relay record.

Now holding the 200 free relay mark at 1:36.17 is lead off Brown (East Berlin, Pa./Bermudian Springs), followed by freshman Sara Sullivan (Longmont, Colo./Longmont), and junior Brittany Stevens (Peachtree City, Ga./Starr Mills High School).

McDonnell set a meet and freshman school record earlier in the day in the 100 back, when she and senior Shoust (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/White Pines C & VS) swam under the previous meet record of 57.74 in the 100 back. McDonnell now holds the meet record at 56.98, while Shoust finished right behind at 57.05.

The previous freshman record in the 100 back was held by Shoust at 57.11, but is now McDonnell's. She later added to her win totals when she claimed first in the 100 free.

Leading her team to a victory, Brown turned in three separate record-setting performances, earning three individual first-place finishes.

Brown's first record of the day was in the 200 free, where she shaved her time by nearly a second with a 1:50.44 performance. She then took first in the 50 free at 23.82, which eclipsed the previous mark of 24.13 by Kelly Redcay, one year ago. Lastly, she improved upon her 500 free time of 5:00.94, touching the wall at 4:57.00.

Also proving to be a leader for her team, Shoust shattered her previous Blue-Gold record in the 50 back (26.98) with a time of 26.60 in the first lap of the 200 yard medley relay. Later, Shoust set the standard in the 200 back with a time of 2:03.65, smashing the four-year record of 2:05.15 by Carolyne Savini.

Sophomore Ruth Seiffert (Boothwyn, Pa./Garnett Valley), freshman Agnes Mago (Kecskemet, Hungary/Bolyai Janos) and junior Kelly O'Hara (Voorhes, N.J./Timber Creek) joined Shoust on the 200 medley relay team that picked up the win with a time of 1:49.30.

Seiffert was the pace-setter for the Panthers in the breaststroke. She first snatched points for the Blue team in the 100 breast with a time of 1:07.42, then took first in the 200 breast (2:26.12).

Sophomore Erika Rodriguez (Caracas, Venezuela/Colegio Maoer del Divino Pastor) added more points for Blue finishing second in the 200 breast with a time of 2:27.48, while Gold's senior Kathy Siuda (Waterloo, Ontatio/Bluevale Collegiate Institute) came in just after at 2:27.86. Siuda's 2:08.72 in the 200 IM garnered a top finish, while Mago took second at 2:15.14.

Stevens chipped in early points for the Gold team with first-place efforts in the 100 (57.52) and 200 fly (2:09.62) events.

In the diving events, freshman Margo Ekstrom (Erie, Pa./McDowell) led the way for the Blue team, placing first in the1M (205.35) and 3M boards (220.72). Freshman Alyssa Ferraro (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) of the Blue team placed second in the 1M, while classmate Hanna Bratton (Lincoln, R.I./Moses Brown) of the Gold squad took second in the 3M.

The Panthers will `Swim For the Cure' on Friday, Oct. 27, as they host St. Bonaventure at Trees Pool at 3 p.m. All fans are encouraged to wear pink and support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.