Pitt Women Finish ACCs with More Finalists and Records

Wednesday, February 14

Greensboro, N.C.

Pitt

ACC Women's Championships

Pitt Women Finish ACCs with More Finalists and Records

2/17/2018 10:00:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Full Meet Results (PDF)

GREENSBORO, N.C.—The Pitt women's swimming & diving team improved its point total at the ACC Championships for the second consecutive season as the Panthers finished the meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with 494 points—good enough for ninth place overall in the conference.

This was a historic meet for Pitt's program as the Panthers broke 11 school records, including all five swimming relay records. Over the last four days in Greensboro, Pitt tallied five individual top-10 finishes—four in swimming and one in diving—as the Panthers scored 66 more points as a team than at last year's ACC Championships.

"It's great that our program took a step forward with our points total at this meet," Pitt head coach John Hargis said. "We're still very youthful and developing as a team, and we'll continue to improve going forward as we stay on the right path. Also, we're excited to see what our seniors can do at the NCAA Championships in a few weeks."

Those senior swimmers, Lina Rathsack and Amanda Richey, each recorded eighth-place individual finishes Saturday to lead the way for the Panthers on the final day of these ACC Championships.

Rathsack, who had earned an ACC silver medal on Friday evening in the 100-yard breast, took eighth in the 200 breast Saturday with a finals time of 2:12.27. And Richey, who placed fourth in the 500-yard free earlier in the meet, added an eighth-place effort in the 1,650 free with a time of 16:14.75 in the event final.

Four Pitt swimming school records also fell on Saturday evening.

The Panthers' 400-yard freestyle relay team of Valerie Daigneault, Rachel Brown, Sam Howe and Lina Rathsack concluded the meet by lowering a Pitt school record in the event that had stood since 2015 to 3:18.38 and finishing ninth, making it a perfect 5-for-5 on broken relay records for Pitt during these ACC Championships.

Leading off that event, Daigneault also broke a Pitt school record from 2015 previously held by Emily Murphy when she swam a first-leg time of 49.36 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle.

Earlier, sophomore Madelyn Shaffer bested her own Pitt school record in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing in 12th place with a Panthers all-time best time of 1:59.16. Daigneault also broke her own Pitt record in the 200-yard backstroke twice on Saturday, claiming 19th with a finals swim of 1:55.15 following her morning qualification effort of 1:56.07.

Three other Panthers qualified for Saturday night's ACC swimming finals. Alongside Daigneault in the 200 back finals, Shahar Menahem (22nd, 1:57.04) and Shan Hochkeppel (23rd, 1:57.65) posted points for the Panthers, as did Sarah Giamber in the 1650 free by placing 23rd in 16:46.13.

In diving, three Panthers earned top-20 finishes in women's platform Saturday to add 36 total points to the Pitt team tally. Freshman Lydia Rosenthall concluded a quality debut ACC meet by finishing 11th with 212.15 points, senior Meme Sharp took 14th with 207.9 points and sophomore Krista Jones came in 18th at 185.95 points.

"Today was a solid performance from our divers to finish this meet," Pitt diving coach Katie Hazelton said. "Platform will definitely be a huge priority within our training moving forward. But next, we're looking forward to working hard in preparation for the upcoming NCAA Zones."

Rosenthall and Sharp both scored in all three diving events for the Panthers at these ACC Championships, while Jones scored at the conference meet for the first time in her Pitt career.

Also competing for the Panthers in swimming on the final day at ACCs were Maddy Thomas (36th, 1:59.54), Barb Schmele (43rd, 2:03.26) and Kathleen Lynch (50th, 2:06.50) in the 200 back; Sam Howe (33rd, 49.95) and Rachel Brown (50.49) in the 200 free; Katy Miller (33rd, 2:22.03) in the 200 breast; Meghan Joram (28th, 2:04.41) and Jacqueline Hendrix (31st, 2:04.85) in the 200 fly; and Joram (27th, 16:55.09) and Colleen Daday (28th, 16:55.74) in the 1650 free.

In diving, freshman Noah Marble concluded his first ACC Championships by finishing 29th in the men's platform competition with 216.2 points. Sophomore Cortnee Williams also dove in the women's platform event and finished 28th for the Panthers with 146.35 points.

The 2018 ACC Men's Swimming Championships will be held next week from Wednesday through Saturday back at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Pitt enters the swimming portion of that meet with 14 team points thanks to Marble's efforts this week.

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