Pitt Concludes ACC Meet with Vera's Silver Medal, More Records

Wednesday, February 27

Greensboro, NC

Pitt

ACC Men's Championships

Photo by: Sara D. Davis/ACC

Pitt Concludes ACC Meet with Vera's Silver Medal, More Records

3/2/2019 9:15:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Full Meet Results (PDF)

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Pitt men's swimming team concluded a remarkable four-day performance at the 2019 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships with another historic day for the Panthers at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

Sophomore Blaise Vera advanced to his third individual ACC championship final of the meet – an unprecedented feat for a Pitt men's swimmer – and produced a silver medal thanks to a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Vera became the first Pitt men's swimmer to earn a top-two individual finish at the ACC Championships as well.

A native of Clinton, Miss., Vera grabbed his third Pitt school record of the meet in the morning prelims of the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 42.04—the top qualifying time in the event. The only sophomore in the championship final, Vera placed second at 42.37 behind Florida State senior Kanoa Kaleoaloha.

Pitt junior Samy Helmbacher, who took bronze in the 400-yard individual medley Friday, posted his third top-10 finish of the meet by winning Saturday evening's consolation final of the 200-yard breaststroke. Helmbacher's final time of 1:55.34 set a Pitt school record and garnered him ninth place. He had also placed ninth in the 200-yard individual medley Thursday.

Both Vera and Helmbacher are almost guaranteed to be invited in multiple events to the 2019 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, which will be held March 27-30 in Austin, Texas. Pitt hasn't had multiple men's swimmers at the national meet since 2002.

"I'm extremely proud of this team," Pitt head coach John Hargis said. "From Blaise and Samy raising the standard of expectation for the entire program to the seniors pouring their hearts and souls into leading this team and showing all of the younger guys how to compete, we're moving in the right direction. This is an amazing conference for swimming & diving, and we represented ourselves very well this week with some outstanding performances and history-making swims. But this is only the beginning."

Also competing in consolation finals Saturday, Eben Vorster placed 10th in the 200-yard butterfly with a Pitt record time of 1:43.58. Armin Remenyi, who had posted a Pitt record in the same event earlier in the day, finished 14th with an impressive time of 1:44.06.

Rounding out Pitt's scoring efforts Saturday, senior Brian Lovasik took 22nd in the 100-yard freestyle in 43.68, Luke Smutny placed 21st in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:45.24 and senior Aaron Sett and Ryan Schonbachler both scored in the 1,650-yard freestyle mile, taking 22nd (15:23.01) and 24th (15:29.66).

In total, the Panthers earned seven individual top-10 finishes over the past four days after placing just one Pitt men's swimmer in the top 10 of an event last year.

Pitt's 400-yard freestyle relay of Vera, Lovasik, Helmbacher and Vorster concluded the meet with yet another school record, finishing sixth in 2:52.79. The Panthers went 5-for-5 on relay records at this meet and finished with a total of 14 men's swimming school records.

The Panthers finished the 2019 ACC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships in ninth place as a team with 508 points, a massive improvement on last year's 10th-place finish with 324 points. The Pitt men's ninth-place finish matched its best at ACCs, while the 508 points team points scored by the Panthers were the second most for the program since joining the conference in 2013-14—just shy of the total of 513 that Hargis' squad scored in 2017.

Several other Panthers recorded impressive swims during Saturday morning's preliminary session.

In the 200-yard backstroke, Bence Szucsik finished 25th in 1:47.21, while Judd Fishman (26th, 1:47.30), Luay Hilmi (27th, 1:48.18) and Nathan Elzer (30th, 1:50.62) each posted great top times in the event.

Ellis Cannon (43rd, 44.80) also produced a personal-best swim in the 100-yard freestyle to conclude an impressive ACC Championships for the improving sophomore, while Alec Hoch (46th, 45.28) also competed in the event.

The 200-yard breaststroke saw John Fauteux (27th, 2:00.18) and Jason Young (32nd, 2:01.79) easily surpass their best performances in the event, while Ryan Schonbachler (32nd, 1:49.36) and Serhii Ahadzhanian (34th, 1:49.72) similarly impressed with top times in the 200-yard butterfly.

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