Courtesy: Pittsburgh Athletics
PITTSBURGH —University of Pittsburgh junior Blaise Vera was named the ACC Men’s Swimmer of the Week after his performance in the Panthers’ season-opening meet against Carnegie Mellon, the conference office announced Tuesday.
A returning ACC medalist and NCAA qualifier, Vera earned ACC Swimmer of the Week honors for the second time of his career. Pitt has now received a total of 11 ACC Swimmer or Diver of the Week recognitions under fourth-year head coach John Hargis.
Following up from a sensational sophomore season, Vera made a strong early impression in 2019-20 with his efforts in Pitt’s relays-only swimming meet with Carnegie Mellon on Friday at Trees Pool.
The junior sprinter from Clinton, Miss., competed in four events, helping his relay squads to one win and three runner-up finishes while posting some eye-catching times with his individual swims.
Vera’s first competitive 50-yard freestyle of the season led off the freestyle crescendo relay and was timed at 19.94 seconds – good enough for an early season NCAA B-cut mark in the event.
Just as impressively, Vera capped Pitt’s winning 200-yard medley relay with a 50-yard freestyle split of 19.15 seconds, which helped the Panthers earn a victory by more than three seconds with a time of 1:31.94.
Vera also swam the opening legs of the second-place squads in the backstroke and butterfly relays, posting a 100-yard back time of 54.75 and a 100-yard fly time of 49.23 to open his season.
The Panthers are back in action this weekend at the FIU TYR Classic in Miami as some of Pitt’s top athletes will compete at the two-day meet on Friday evening, Oct. 4, and Saturday morning, Oct. 5.