Feb. 19, 2010
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Two school records were left in the wake Friday evening at Trees Pool as Notre Dame remained on top of 2010 BIG EAST Conference Championships leaderboard. The 400 medley relay opened the evening with a school-record 3:15.25 for third-place honors and Petar Petrovic tapped in at 48.64 in the 100 back to break his own record in the event to claim the league’s bronze medal.
Notre Dame (546) holds a slim lead over Louisville (541) looking ahead to the final day of the championships, with the Saturday (Feb. 20) prelims at Trees Pool starting at 10 a.m. (ET). Pittsburgh (399) and West Virginia (315) round out the top four squads in the 11-team field.
“Once again, the team swam very well both this morning and tonight,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “We moved up in some races and set two records, which speaks well for the program. This is a great meet for all teams involved, and tomorrow you can expect everyone to swim lights-out.”
Live stats will be available at UND.com and in-meet updates can be accessed at twitter.com/NDSwimming.
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400 Medley Relay: Petrovic, Joseph Raycroft, MacKenzie LeBlanc and John Lytle teamed for the NCAA B-cut and Irish record in 3:15.25 to earn the bronze … Louisville (3:10.95) set a league and pool record en route to winning the race with the nation’s second-fastest time.
400 Individual Medley: Michael Sullivan (3:54.81) and Peter Koppel (3:55.14) were fourth and fifth, respectively, after the prelims with NCAA B-cut swims … Louisville’s Carlos Almeida used a strong breaststroke to break open from the field in the finals and won in a pool-record 3:46.43 … Sullivan was third in 3:51.67 while Koppel (3:55.45) took fifth and Andrew Deters (3:55.98) was seventh.
100 Fly: Bill Bass stormed from behind in seventh place to take third in 48.56 … LeBlanc (49.15) rounded out the heat in eighth … Josh Schneider bettered his own meet record while also setting a new pool record in 46.44 for first.
200 Free: Four Irish swimmers earned a spot in the finals, led by NCAA B-cuts showings from Lytle (1:37.15) and Andrew Hoffman (1:37.88) in the prelims … Steven Brus’ 1:38.42 during the morning session gave Notre Dame the top three seeds heading into the finals … Brendon Andrews (1:36.15) came out of nowhere to win the final race for the Cardinals with a pool record … Lytle (1:37.24) was second, Hoffman (1:37.75) was third, Brus (1:37.97) was fourth and Kevin Overholt (1:39.04) was seventh … John McGinley (1:40.12) led after 50 yards but placed fifth in the consolations.
100 Breast: Joseph Raycroft (55.90) was seeded fourth in the evening’s final heat and took sixth with a 56.18 in the finale … Christopher Johnson (55.63) was first in the consolations.
100 Back: Petrovic (48.96) tied his own school record in the prelims … he went on to break the record again in the finals while taking third in 48.64 … Christopher Wills (49.38) was sixth in the final race of the night.
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