Grottle Makes History as Panthers Conclude Week at ACC Meet

Wednesday, February 17

Greensboro, N.C.

TBA

Pitt

ACC Women's Championships

Photo by: Sara D. Davis/ACC

Grottle Makes History as Panthers Conclude Week at ACC Meet

2/20/2021 10:00:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Full Meet Results

GREENSBORO, N.C.—The University of Pittsburgh women's swimming and diving team and men's divers finished up the four-day meet at the 2021 ACC Championships on Saturday with more success in the pool at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

The Panthers' efforts on Saturday were highlighted by ACC debutants Abby Grottle, Jacqueline Tinneny and Abby Licht each scoring in the 1,650-yard freestyle mile, freshman Genna Joyce and senior Shahar Menahem swimming their way to ACC final heats and underclassmen divers Dylan Reed and Nate Keller scoring in the men's platform diving competition.

Grottle led the way for the Panthers as the freshman finished seventh in the 1,650 Free with a remarkable swim that clocked in at 16:28.67 for an NCAA B-cut time in the event. Grottle's finish was the best ever by a Pitt freshman swimmer at the ACC Championships.

Tinneny (10th, 16:30.96) and Licht (23rd, 17:00.00) also posted points for the Panthers in the freestyle mile in what was their first appearances at the ACC Championships.

Menahem earned her second top-20 finish of the meet by placing 20th in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:59.45, while Joyce, another freshman, took 21st in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:14.51.

In the men's platform competition, Reed (14th, 280.05) and Keller (17th, 274.55) both scored to boost Pitt's team total by 22 points ahead of men's swimming action next week, while freshman Jackson Salisbury (28th, 197.90) also looked impressive.

Saturday's action concluded with Pitt's women's 400-yard freestyle relay of Kate Fuhrmann, Madison Nalls, Shahar Menahem and Sophie Yendell finishing 11th with a time of 3:21.16.

The Pitt women's program finished in 11th place in the ACC with an improved point total of 360.

Pitt swimming and diving program head coach John Hargis summarized the women's week by highlighting the highs and lows of the conference meet in which his Panthers showed great promise.

"This week mimicked the entire past year with so many ups and downs," Hargis said. "We brought an extremely young team to Greensboro and saw glimpses of what they can do. Abby Grottle swam an unbelievable mile, for example. We had several first-time ACC finalists, which is always great to see."

"But we had a lot of learning experiences as well," Hargis added. "You always feel like you could have swam better and not having a midseason invitational for this group certainly made this ACC meet an eye-opening experience for our younger student-athletes. But the future is bright for the program with swimming and diving under Katie both improving, so we're certainly excited about the future."

Pitt diving coach Katie Hazelton saw her men's and women's divers each collectively post significant scoring improvements at the ACC Championships this year, with the Pitt women's divers setting their highest points total at the conference meet since the Panthers joined the ACC in 2013-14.

"I'm really happy with the progress of our divers," Hazelton said. "We had the potential to be much better, but I'm still pleased with our performances this week. The culture continues to grow with an emphasis on training hard and supporting each other. From a veteran finalist like Amy Read to the several freshmen we brought to Greensboro who scored, I'm proud of every diver on this team."

"The future is very exciting to think about," Hazelton added. "The depth we displayed was phenomenal. I'm eager to see what we can accomplish next at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet and NCAA Championships, both of which will be held here in Greensboro, which could be an advantage for our divers as well."

Also competing for the Panthers on Saturday, Daisy Anderson (25th, 2:01.14) and Kathleen Lynch (35th, 2:07.71) swam in the 200-yard backstroke prelims. They were followed by Madison Nalls (25th, 50.36), Kate Fuhrmann (29th, 50.57), Sophie Yendell (46th, 51.84), Afrodite Agathokleous (52nd, 53.28) and Emma Wilson (55th, 53.69) in the 100-yard freestyle.

Then Anneliese Hohm (36th, 2:19.41) and Tatum Detwiler (38th, 2:19.75) raced in the 200-yard breaststroke before Daisy Anderson (35th, 2:05.29), Kayla Graham (37th, 2:07.94) and Jilian Schulte (40th, 2:09.10) competed in the 200-yard butterfly.

The Pitt men's swimmers travel to Greensboro for next week's continuation of the ACC Championships, which will begin with relays on Wednesday before full days of prelims, finals and relays from Thursday through next Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

The entire 2021 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships, including prelims and finals, will be broadcast via ACC Network Extra and the WatchESPN app.

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