University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
ECAC Championships
Pitt Concludes Second Day of ECAC Championships
2/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
PITTSBURGH - The second day of action in the 2015 ECAC Championships concluded at Joseph C. Trees Pool with the Pitt women's team holding a solid lead over the field and a reduced men's squad posting several individual top times.
The women's team owns an 83.5 point lead with a score of 441.5 while the men sit seventh with 180.0.
The championship-qualifying women's 200 medley relay team opened the evening's finals races with a bang. Freshman Tia VanLandeghem, junior Maddie Marcelle, senior Lauren Mills, and freshman Emily Murphy won the event with a time of 1:43.57, good for the fourth-fastest effort this season for the Panthers.
However, it was Pitt's exhibition relay team that posted the top time of the event when it broke the University's school record with a time of 1:40.48. Junior Blair Wegescheide led things off followed by sophomore Kinga Cichowska, and juniors Mackenzie Meixner and Danyel Johnson. The previous best time of 1:40.63 was attained at last year's ACC Championships.
Cichowska continued her successful season, claiming victory in the 100 breast with a new meet-best time of 1:01.45, good for an NCAA `B' cut and topping her previous ECAC record which she set during preliminaries (1:01.47).
Other standout performances for the women came from Wegescheide's second-place finish in the 100 back (53.63) and personal records from freshman Mary Beth Blocher in the 200 free (1:51.93), Marcelle (1:04.25) in the 100 breast, and junior Lindsey Rodenkirk (58.24) and VanLandeghem (57.00) both in the 100 back.
For the men, junior Andrew McCarthy (1:39.20, 200 free), freshman Austin Doss (49.85, 100 fly), sophomore Jake Tovey (50.64, 100 fly), and junior Matt Tankle (49.56, 100 back) all posted personal bests.
Freshman Meme Sharp placed second in the women's 3-meter dive with a score of 281.60. Junior Sam Winkelmann (274.60) and sophomore Rachel Saunders (266.85) finished third and fourth, respectively.
The ECAC Championships will wrap up tomorrow with prelims at 9 a.m. and finals at 4 p.m. back at Trees Pool.
