Courtesy: Pittsburgh Athletics
PITTSBURGH – The swimming & diving team is set to compete against each other in a friendly rivalry Friday morning in a Blue vs. Gold intra-squad meet at Trees Pool.
Start time begins at 9:30 AM with the men’s 3-meter platform, followed by the women’s 3-meter platform at 10:30. The men’s and women’s 1-meter event begin at 11:15 AM and 11:45 AM, respectively.
Swimming begins at 3 PM with the women’s 200 medley relay and continues until the last event, the mixed 200 freestyle relay, at 5:23 PM.
The instrasquad meet will be closed to the public, with no fans or spectators permitted to enter Trees Pool to abide by COVID-19 related protocols.
The women return 18 swimmers and divers from a year ago.
The women’s top returners include junior divers Serena Buchwald and Amy Read and swimmers junior Madison Nalls and sophomore Kate Fuhrmann. Buchwald took first-place in the 3-meter dive at the Western PA Invite on Jan. 24, with a total of 313.95 points. She also took third in the platform event with a tally of 477.70 on March 11 at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet. Read’s top diving marks last season included 303.30 points in the 1-meter dive and 258.38 points in the platform, both of which were team-highs. Read finished sixth at the ACC Championships in the 10-meter (six dive) event with a score of 223.60. The diver from Leeds, England, had multiple first-place showings throughout the season, including three in the 1-meter, two in the 3-meter and two in the platform. At the NCAA Zone Diving Meet, Read totaled a final 10-dive score of 503.45 in the women’s platform, taking first-place and qualifying for nationals. Both Buchwald and Read were named CSCAA All-Americans and were set to compete at the NCAA Championships before the abrupt end of the season due to COVID-19.
Nalls finished with a team-high time of 50.17 in the 100 free, .41 seconds behind recent graduate Valerie Daigneault’s school record time. Nalls swam a personal best time of 1:47.81 in the 200 free at the ACC Championships, finishing 19th. The York, Pa., native tallied three first-place finishes in the 100 free and earned a second-place finish in the 1000 free with a time of 10:31.79. Fuhrmann clocked in multiple team-highs last season, including the 50 free (22.83) and the 100 breast (1:02.72). She finished first three times in the 100 breast in the month of January, including at West Virginia, vs. Denison and in the Western PA Invite. Fuhrmann was also a part of multiple top-time relay teams, most notably the 200 free relay (1.30.40) that finished just .35 seconds behind the Pitt school record set in 2019.
The men see 19 swimmers & divers returning to the team. Among the returners are seniors Blaise Vera and Armin Remenyi and sophomore Dylan Reed. Vera turned in multiple top-10 finishes at the ACC Men’s Championships last year, finishing sixth-place in the 50 free (19.54), sixth in the 100 fly with a season-best time of 46.21 and a ninth-place time of 42.61 in the 100 free. Vera finished first in all but one of his individual races, earning first in the 50 free seven times, six times in the 100 free and once in the 100 fly. The product of Clinton, Mo., product was named on the CSCAA All-America Team and was set to compete in the NCAA Championships in the 50-free and 100-free before the season was brought to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Remenyi clocked a team-best time of 1:44.07 in the 200 fly at the ACC Championships, placing 10th overall. He also finished 24th at the championships with a mark of 47.48 in the 100 fly. The Budapest, Hungray, native also swam in multiple relays for the Panthers that earned season-bests, including the 200 free (1:18.14), 400 free (2:53.38) and 800 free (6:21.72).
Reed took first four times throughout last season in diving, earning the top spot in the 1-meter and 3-meter event twice each. Reed’s top marks included 363.35 points in the 1-meter and 371.10 in the 3-meter at the Western PA Invite.
Eleven freshmen join the women’s team, including eight swimmers and three divers. The men add 12 freshmen, featuring 10 swimmers and two divers. Both teams boast multiple international athletes, with seven on the men’s side and six on the women’s.