Jan. 23, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – With six events in the book, the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team leads the field after the opening session of the Shamrock Invitational. The Irish were strong across the lanes Friday at the Rolfs Aquatic Center and won three events against three visiting squads.
Notre Dame leads Denver (58-52), Michigan State (72-38) and West Virginia (70-40). Session two begins Saturday (Jan. 24) at 10:00 a.m. (ET). Live stats and complete coverage is available at UND.com.
“It was a great start for us tonight,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “We have been looking for movement in the direction of getting faster. We got some of it tonight, so I’m very excited and very happy with how the guys did. Our relays were strong and individual events were improved. And diving was phenomenal for us.”
200 Free Relay: The night started off on the right stroke for the Irish, as John Lytle teamed with David Anderson, Andrew Hoffman and Danny Lutkus to lead Notre Dame to first-place honors in 1:23.69 … Thomas Van Volkenburg, Joshua Nosal, Marshall Sherman and Kevin Rahill put together a fifth-place swim in 1:25.74.
500 Free: Denver’s Blake Wosley set a pool record while racking an NCAA B-cut time in 4:21.98 … the previous Rolfs Aquatic Center record (4:28.44) was set in 2000 by John Munley of Michigan State … Jeff Wood (4:33.39) was third and Michael Sullivan (4:38.64) touched just in front of Steven Brus (4:38.97).
200 Individual Medley: Daniel Rave (1:55.49), the highest Irish finisher, was tenth.
50 Free: Lytle (20.79) slid through in 20.86, but Kevin Rahill was quite impressive with a 21.06 which was season-best for the freshman … it made hime one of the top 15 performers in school history in the event … Hoffman was fourth overall in 21.22.
1-meter Diving: Bulfin wowed the crowd with a 367.50 off the short board … he was first, and Eric Lex (352.45) was next in line … Caleb Dunnichay (332.55) rounded out the top three.
400 Medley Relay: A fourth-place finish was all the Irish could muster in the final race of the day, which was posted by Bill Bauman, Brian Maloy, MacKenzie LeBlanc and Lytle in 3:25.71.
–ND–