Pitt Finishes ACC Championships with Best Team Finish Ever

Wednesday, February 26

Greensboro, NC

Pitt

ACC Men's Championships

Pitt Finishes ACC Championships with Best Team Finish Ever

2/29/2020 9:00:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Results

GREENSBORO, N.C.—The University of Pittsburgh concluded the 2020 ACC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships with a team-record eighth-place ACC finish, moving up the conference standings in dramatic fashion at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

The Panthers posted 10 individual scoring performances and a quality relay on Saturday evening to finish the four-day meet with 520 team points – just 14 points ahead of Georgia Tech.

Pitt's 520 team points also marked a program record at ACCs, surpassing the 513 scored in 2017.

"The extraordinary leadership of our seniors guided us to this point," Pitt head coach John Hargis said. "We didn't have a perfect meet by any means, but these guys fought all week – and it took right until the final race to secure our best team finish at ACCs. I'm so proud of this team for the way that they continuously focused on the next race and stayed together."

Pitt's top individual finisher on Saturday was junior sprinter Blaise Vera, who scored 20 crucial points by winning the 100-yard freestyle consolation final to finish ninth with an impressive time of 42.61 that would've made him the runner-up in the championship heat of the event.

Junior Armin Remenyi also provided the Panthers with a heroic performance in a consolation final, placing 10th in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:44.07 to tally 17 points.

Seniors Samy Helmbacher, Eben Vorster and Luke Smutny each tallied team points on Saturday as well. Helmbacher placed 11th in the 200-yard breaststroke in 1:56.43, Vorster took 19th in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:44.94 and Smutny finished 21st in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:46.21.

Underclassmen Cooper van der Laan, Jerry Chen and Serhii Ahadzhanian boosted Pitt's efforts as well. After reaching a championship final yesterday, van der Laan was again impressive by securing 11th in the 200-yard breaststroke in 1:55.41. Ahadzhanian raced to 23rd in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:46.65.

In the afternoon's 1,650-yard freestyle mile heats, freshman Wojciech Dutkowiak (20th, 15:23.54) and junior Ryan Schonbachler (23rd, 15:28.35) each posted top times to combine for seven points.

Leading Georgia Tech by just four points heading into the final relay, Pitt's 400-yard freestyle relay of Blaise Vera, Armin Remenyi, Samy Helmbacher and Eben Vorster cemented their team's positioning by crushing the Yellow Jackets in the event, drawing an emotional outburst from the Panthers on deck.

Also competing for Pitt on Saturday in Greensboro, numerous athletes posted strong efforts and top times in the morning preliminary session.

The 200-yard backstroke heats saw Judd Fishman (27th, 1:47.32), Stephen Hopta (29th, 1:47.66), Dominic Toledo (33rd, 1:50.51) and Jered Moore (34th, 1:51.11) in action.

The 100-yard freestyle prelims resulted in strong swims by Ellis Cannon (45th, 45.14), Alec Hoch (47th, 45.33) and Szymon Pytlarczyk (52nd, 46.27).

Schonbachler also swam the 200-yard butterfly in 1:49.60 to place 31st, while Hopta took 34th in the 1,650-yard freestyle mile in 15:52.91 as well.

Next up for the Pitt swimming & diving program, several divers will compete at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet from March 9-11 in Morgantown, W.Va.

The swimmers will await invitations to the 2020 NCAA Championships to see which athletes qualify for this year's national meets.

The NCAA Women's Championships will be held in Athens, Ga. from March 18-21, while the NCAA Men's Championships are set to be staged from March 25-28 in Indianapolis.

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