Panthers Break Two School Records at Ohio State

Friday, February 1

Columbus, OH

4 PM

Pitt

Ohio State

Panthers Break Two School Records at Ohio State

2/1/2019 7:35:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Full Results (PDF)

PITTSBURGH—After setting three school records at last weekend's Western Pennsylvania Invitational, Pitt swimming & diving broke two more program bests on Friday night in a dual meet at Ohio State to close the regular season schedule.

The Pitt men's 200-yard freestyle relay squad lowered its school record for the second time in a week as Blaise Vera, Ellis Cannon, Armin Remenyi and Alec Hoch finished in 1:18.91 – nearly a second faster than the time those four Panthers posted last Saturday to break a Pitt record that had stood since 2006.

Junior diver Krista Jones also broke a school record for the first time in her collegiate career on Friday, posting a platform score of 265.58 to raise the Pitt best that had been set earlier this season by freshman Amy Read.

Facing the Buckeyes in an off-distance dual meet that featured unique race lengths and platform diving, the Panthers fell to No. 13 Ohio State in the men's meet by a score of 193-107, while the Pitt women were defeated by the No. 15 Buckeyes via a 199.5-96.5 decision.

"We're never happy to lose, but it was good to win several events tonight and set two more records," Pitt head coach John Hargis said after the meet. "We dropped some close races at the beginning that put us behind, but these student-athletes kept pushing and really finished strong against one of the top programs in the Big Ten and nationally. This is definitely the most confident team that I've had during my time at Pitt, and that showed tonight. I'm proud of this group."

"It was exciting to see Krista set her first school record tonight with Amy and Serena Buchwald right there too," said Pitt diving coach Katie Hazelton. "We're showing tremendous depth as a team, especially on women's platform. Mixing it up and competing on platform and springboard tonight against Ohio State, one of the top diving teams in the nation, was a great experience. We hope that will give us a competitive edge when we go up against more quality divers at the ACC Championships."

In total, Pitt won eight events against the top-15 Buckeyes on Senior Night at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

For the men, the 200-yard medley relay (1:26.94) earned a dramatic win early on. Blaise Vera earned individual victories in the 25-yard freestyle (9.29) and the 75-yard freestyle (31.93), while John Fauteux took first in the 75-yard breaststroke (39.80) and Samy Helmbacher claimed top placement in the 175-yard individual medley (1:32.29) in convincing fashion.

Sarah Giamber earned the women's first win of the night in the 600-yard freestyle (5:56.40) before Valerie Daigneault won the 75-yard backstroke (40.11) and the 125-yard backstroke (1:10.35).

In diving, Jones finished third on platform with Read (250.05) and Buchwald (240.82) not far behind. Read led the way with a fourth-place finish on 1-meter springboard. For the men, Josh Parquet finished fifth on platform and sixth on 1-meter to pace the Panthers.

"We've competed a lot since the start of the year," Hargis added after the Panthers completed their fourth dual meet in five weeks. "But I feel like this team is fully prepared to do some special things in the postseason at the ACC Championships and beyond. We'll take the next few weeks to prepare and get our minds and bodies ready to be at peak performance in Greensboro at the conference meet."

The Panthers will begin the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday, Feb. 23 with women's swimming and men's and women's diving in Greensboro, N.C.

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