#ACCWSD Championships Rewind
2/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Wednesday Results| Thursday Results| Friday Results| Saturday Results| Final Results|Long Course Meet Results
PITTSBURGH - The University of Pittsburgh's second go-around at the ACC Women's Swimming & Diving Championships couldn't have gone any better for the Panthers.
A total of 11 school records were set over the four-day event. And despite adding a top-25 team in Louisville, the Panthers placed eighth for the second straight year. After finishing one spot and 120 points behind Duke at last year's championships and losing to them in a dual meet to open up the 2014-15 campaign, Pitt scored 23 points more than the Blue Devils this time to keep their positioning.
The highlight of the weekend, however was the program's first individual ACC champion - Dominic Giordano. The sophomore transfer from Florida State and Wexford native used a near-perfect dive to come-from-behind and win platform diving. Not to be lost in the shuffle was junior Kaleigh Ritter, who became the team's first medalist only two hours before Giordano when she took bronze in the 1650 free.
Overall, 14 student-athletes appeared in 21 finals competitions including two A Finals, five B Finals, 11 C Finals and three diving finals.
On Sunday, the team participated in a long course meet time trials and two swimmers hit 2016 Olympic Trials qualifying times.
Below, find a breakdown of how each stroke performed at the meet:
FREESTYLE
Junior Kaleigh Ritter capped a fantastic week by winning the program's first ACC Championship medal when she set a school record in the 1650 free with a time of 16:41.31 and took bronze. Along the way, she also set a new standard in the 1000 free, going out in 9:47.25. Ritter set the tone on the first night of individual competition, becoming just the second swimmer in school history to qualify for an A Final at the ACC Championships. She swam the 500 Free in a school-record 4:44.32 - bettering her own mark by 0.04. Ritter also competed in the C Final in the 200 free and posted a personal-best time of 1:49.20. Overall, Ritter was responsible for three school records on the week.
The 1650 free provided five point scorers for the Panthers in all. Freshman Amanda Richey, who entered the meet with the second-fastest time in the conference in the 1650 free, settled for ninth with a time of 16:33.24. Junior Bethany DeWitt finished 16th in 16:54.16 and seniors Tatyanna Sarjeant (17:02.54) and Emily Bolek (17:30.38) were 18th and 22nd, respectively.
In addition to Ritter's record performance in the 500 free, Pitt also received strong performances from Richey, DeWitt and senior Dani des Tombe in the 500 free. Richey made the B Final and was third in that race (11th) overall in a lifetime-best 4:45.75. Both DeWitt (4:50.56) and des Tombe (4:51.47) swam in the C Final, placing fifth (21st overall) and seventh (23rd), respectively with season-best times.
des Tombe was also the team's only participant in the 200 free as she put forth a sixth-place (22nd) time of 1:49.55.
Junior Danyel Johnson went under 23 seconds for the first time racing in the 50 free C Final. Her time of 22.87 was good enough for fourth (20th) in the C Final.
BREASTSTROKE
This was Pitt's most balanced group of swimmers as sophomore Kinga Cichowska, senior Cam Dixon and freshman Katie Fernander represented the school in finals in both the 100 breast and 200 breast.
Cichowska was the second and last swimmer of the weekend to qualify for an A Final as she placed sixth in the 200 breast in 2:11.46. She also finished fourth (12th overall) in the B Final of the 100 breast (1:01.77).
Dixon started off the weekend by finishing right behind Cichowska in the 100 breast B Final in 1:01.79 after registering a career-best time in the prelims of 1:01.49. She closed out the week by winning the C Final (17th) in 2:14.62 - which actually stood as the 13th quickest time of the finals.
Fernander was the opposite of Dixon, competing in the C Final of the 100 breast and the B Final of the 200 breast. She was the only Pitt swimmer to win multiple races, taking first in both of her Finals heats. In both finals, Fernander set lifetime-best times of 1:01.89 (100) and 2:12.37 (200).
BACKSTROKE
Junior Blair Wegescheide was the only Pitt swimmer to make both backstroke finals - and did so in school record fashion. First, she placed fourth (12th overall) in the 100 back B Final with a time of 53.90 seconds after topping her own school record in the prelims at 53.35 seconds. In the 200 back B Final, Wegescheide took down a 12-year old mark when she finished sixth (14th) in a time of 1:57.58.
Sarjeant also competed in the 200 back, recording a season-best 2:00.28 in the prelims to qualify for the C Final, where she went on to finish sixth (22nd).
BUTTERFLY
Junior Leticia Lelli, who was responsible for a team-high four school records, three individual, over the course of the week, set two of them in the 100 fly. Entering the day, the school record in the 100 fly had stood for more than 11 years. In a matter of eight hours, Lelli broke that mark not once, but twice. Despite being the first female in Pitt history to go sub-55.00 in the prelims and setting a new mark in the process (54.56), Lelli didn't get the chance to race in the finals until another swimmer scratched. She took full advantage of her extra opportunity and lowered the record once again, placing sixth in the C Final in a time of 54.13.
INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
Two Pitt swimmers made the C Final of the 400 IM. Richey, who was in the top-11 of both the 1650 free and 500 free placed seventh (23rd overall) in the C Final and sophomore Athena Summa was next in line.
RELAYS
Each of Pitt's five relay teams recorded season-best performances during the week, including the 200 free relay squad, which bettered a nine-year old mark by nearly a second. The 200 free relay featured Lelli, des Tombe, Johnson and freshman Emily Murphy and finished the race in eighth in a time of 1:31.44.
Both Lelli and des Tombe were fixtures on three other relay teams - the 400 free, 400 medley and 800 free. In the 400 free relay to end the event, Lelli kicked off the opening leg in a school record 49.92, which was 0.06 seconds faster than the former mark last set nine years ago in 2006. That 400 free relay team posted an overall time of 3:22.04.
On opening night, both the 800 free relay and 200 medley relay competed. The 800 free relay team of des Tombe, Ritter, Richey and Lelli finished sixth in a time of 7:16.12. The sixth place effort was the best team finish by a Panthers relay team since joining the ACC last year. Meanwhile, the 200 medley relay squad of Wegescheide, Cichowska, junior Mackenzie Meixner and Johnson was a mere 0.03 seconds off the school mark when it finished the race in 1:40.66.
DIVING
All diving was held in the opening week and the future is bright for Pitt with all but one diver set to return next year.
Giordano scored points in all three dives, but made a splash - or rather didn't make a splash - when he came from behind to win the platform diving event. Needing to score more than 88.75 points in his sixth and final dive to surpass former club teammate and 2015 two-time ACC medalist JB Kolod, Giordano left no doubt in the judges minds and scored a whopping 97.35 out of a possible 99.00 points on a Back 1 ½ Somersault with a 3 ½ Twist to claim both his and the program's first ACC title with a new school record of 413.85 points. The result of his final dive was four 10's and three 9.5's.
Entering the day, the school record in platform diving stood at 316.15 and Giordano wasted no time beating that score in his first platform competition since joining the Panthers in January. His score of 357.35 initially broke the record set in the 2013 Pitt Invite by current teammate Anthony Galante. That performance by Giordano was the second highest score of the afternoon and helped in setting up the dramatics when he dove second-to-last for the finals.
Giordano also qualified for the 3-meter diving finals and finished eighth in that event with a score of 261.05 and placed 12th from 1-meter with 303.90 points.
Freshman Meme Sharp was a 1-meter finalist after she posted the fifth-highest score of the prelims with 290.25 and finished in eighth with 275.50. She was also 16th from 3-meter with 271.90 points.
Two other divers scored points for the Panthers over the weekend. Sophomore Tony Galante narrowly missed out on a spot in the platform finals, taking 11th with 293.75 points and also finished 21st at 3-meter with 294.95. Sophomore Rachel Saunders was 23rd from 3-meter with a score of 251.35.
LONG COURSE MEET
Cichowska and Wegescheide both qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials with their performances on Sunday morning.
Cichowska won the 100-meter breaststroke in a time of 1:10.70 - 0.79 seconds below the qualifying standard. Wegescheide qualified in the 100-meter back with a time of 1:03.01, which was 0.38 seconds faster than the standard.