Day 2 of the 2015 Pitt Invitational saw the host Panthers extend their lead to insurmountable levels, while the West Chester men continued to represent well for Division II.
Men’s Meet
Scores After Day 1:
- Pitt – 1704
- West Chester – 1476
- St. Bonaventure – 971
- IU – Pennsylvania – 855
- Fairmont State – 428
- West Virginia Wesleyan College – 276
The West Chester men finished a sweep of the meet’s medley relays by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:29.82. That crushed the school record by over a second, and beat the runner-up Pitt men (1:31.47) by a similar margin.
That was the first of four event wins for the West Chester men on the day. Luke Maguire won the 100 fly in 48.84, Viktor Polyakov won the 200 free in 1:36.60, and Michael Oliver won the 100 breast by over a second in 55.25.
Pitt’s first of two wins came in the men’s 400 IM, which Zach Lierley won comfortably in 3:52.13. That adds to his lifetime best victory in the 200 IM from Friday night.
Pitt’s second win was by a much, much narrower margin – the narrowest allowable margin of .01 seconds, to be precise. Pitt built their lead early, but West Chester saved their NCAA Champion Polyakov for the anchor leg. What was a 5-second, blowout race when the anchor legs left the blocks became a barn-burner 8 lengths later, but Polyakov’s efforts came up excruciatingly short.
Women’s Meet
Scores After Day 2:
- Pitt – 1920
- Bowling Green State – 1635.5
- St. Bonaventure – 823.5
- West Chester – 708.5
- IU – Pennsylvania – 508
- West Virginia Wesleyan College – 192.5
- Fairmont State – 109
The storyline of the women’s meet was very similar to the men’s, except that Bowling Green State played the role of second fiddle with three individual wins and one relay victory to represent well, though without the diving depth to compete in overall scoring.
The St. Bonaventure women did, however, show enough depth in the swimming events to impress, however. That included an early 1-2 finish in the 400 IM led by sophomore Franziska Wohlert (4:22.11) and Emily Verbrugge (4:26.19). Pitt’s top finisher, Hannah Wittman, was just .01 behind Verbrugge in 4:26.20.
The next race saw another 1-2 finish for the BGSU in the 100 fly. Jordan Bullock won in 55.79 and Kalinka Mogensen was 2nd in 56.21. They had four swimmers in the A-Final, as compared to just a pair for Pitt.
The Falcons bagged a turkey by taking a third-straight win, this time in the 200 free. Victoria Griffin swam 1:48.99 to beat Pitt’s Leticia Lelli (1:50.29) by more than a second. Once again, it was four in the A-Final for Bowling Green, and that depth carried them to exactly a two-second margin of victory in the 800 free relay at the end of the session.
Pitt took the rest of the day’s events, begun by a narrow win in the 200 medley relay in 1:41.72.
That was followed up upon by Kinga Cichowska in the women’s 100 breaststroke with a 1:01.21 win in her best event, following a very strong first day to this meet that forbore this result. The swim was .09 seconds short of Cichowska’s own school record that she set at this same meet a year ago.
Blair Wegescheide won the women’s 100 fly in 54.68, beating out Maya Skorupski from Bowling Green (55.19). The race was absent Letecia Lelli, who is the Pitt school record holder in the event.
Pitt’s last win of the day came in a new school record thanks to diver Meme Sharp. Her scroe of 359.50 in the womens’ 3-meter event broke her own school record by 17 points – another one set at last year’s Pitt Invite.
Interview with Sharp is below.
Hear from Meme Sharp on her 3M record setting performance! pic.twitter.com/MRzx1gmboK
— Pitt Swim & Dive (@Pitt_SWIM_DIVE) November 22, 2015
The meet will conclude with one more day of long course prelims and short course finals on Sunday.
very impressive!