On a busy weekend in college swimming, the Pitt Panthers went on the road to Morgantown, West Virginia to beat the West Virginia Mountaineers on the men’s and women’s sides in the annual Backyard Brawl.
The final scores were 179-119 for the women and 161-139 for the men.
Kaleigh Ritter won two distance races for Pitt, touching out her teammate Lauren Matevish to win the 1000 free in 10:23.56 (Matevish was 10:23.99) and came back to win the 500 free, going 5:04.92.
The middle-distance frees set up an exciting showdown in the middle of the meet. Dani des Tombe won the 200 free for Pitt, going 1:53.35 early in the meet, and then right before the first diving break West Virginia’s Jaimee Gilmore went 24.11 to win the 50 free. Kicking off the second block of swimming events, the two collided in the 100 free, with des Tombe rocketing to her second win of the night in 52.34. Gilmore was 53.01 for second.
Cam Dixon was another double winner for the Panthers, taking the 100 breast in 1:05.14 and the 200 IM in 2:08.58. She also took second in the 200 breaststroke to teammate Veronica Lee.
The teams split the diving events, with WVU’s Lindsay Schmidt scoring 256.50 to win on 1-meter and Pitt’s Rachel Saunders answering back with a 252.67 point win on 3-meter.
West Virginia’s loss wasn’t without some standout efforts, such as Julie Ogden’s sweep of the butterflys. She went 2:04.40 to nip Pitt’s Lee in the 200 fly, then topped Lee again in the 100 fly later, going 57.00 to Lee’s 57.48.
On the men’s side, West Virginia managed to win both relays, but still came up short in the team scores. Pitt overwhelmed the Mountaineers with depth, winning 8 individual events with 7 different swimmers and loading up on second and third-place points.
Luke Nobisch was the only double-winner for Pitt; he swept the 100 and 200 breasts in 57.20 and 2:02.92. The rest of the winners were a diverse cast. Tony Galante (329.77 on 1-meter) and Aaron Snyder (318.45 on 3-meter) split the diving events. David Sweeney (200 free, 1:40.83), Martin Vogel (500 free, 4:42.23) and Scott Simmer (1000 free, 9:38.56) combined to sweep the distance races. Jon Lierley won the 200 fly in 1:50.88.
West Virginia had some bright spots, though, most notably stud Bryce Bohman, who won three events. He won the 100 back in 48.82 early on, crushing the field by two seconds. He came back to win the 200 back in 1:48.69 and the 100 fly in 49.19 in the second portion of the meet.
The Mountaineers were also tough in the sprints. Tim Squires won the 50 free, going 20.47, and he finished second in the 100 to teammate Andrew Marsh‘s 46.22. Nate Carr’s 1:52.18 200 IM was the last win for WVU.