Feb. 18, 2010
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Freshman Bill Bass broke the Notre Dame record in the 200 individual medley during Thursday’s preliminary heats at the 2010 BIG EAST Championships, and then reset his own record in the finals to claim second-place honors for Notre Dame in 1:46.44. Bass posted one of several key swims for the defending champion Irish squad, putting them on top of the pack with 311 points. Louisville (281) is second and Pittsburgh (251) is third among the eight-team field.
“We swam very well tonight, with the highlight coming in the form of Bill Bass’ swim,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “What a tremendous effort for a first-year swimmer in our program, and we could not be more proud for him. We’ve got our work cut out for us and we’re ready for the challenge these next few days.”
The third day of swimming action will begin Friday (Feb. 19) at Trees Pool with preliminary races starting at 10 a.m. (ET). Live stats will be available at UND.com and in-meet updates can be accessed at twitter.com/NDSwimming.
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500 Freestyle: Defending champion Steven Brus went 4:26.24 in the prelims, the second-best time of the morning session … MacKenzie LeBlanc (4:29.35), who earned the title in 2008, tied for seventh in the prelims … Brus (4:26.66) was fifth in the finals with another NCAA B-cut … West Virginia freshman Jared Goldthorpe took the title in 4:24.25 … LeBlanc (4:32.15) was eighth in the final round … Michael Sullivan (4:27.91) and Andrew Deters (4:30.10) finished first and second, respectively, in the consolation finals to earn points for the Irish … Sullivan’s time was an NCAA B-cut.
200 Individual Medley: Bass set a pool record in the prelims, placing first in his heat with a 1:48.00 … it was also a school record, breaking Tim Kegelman’s previous best of 1:49.48 set in 2004 … Bass followed that with a 1:46.44 in the finals to place second, as Louisville’s Carlos Almeida (1:45.71) posted the NCAA’s fourth-fastest time of the season in the finals to post the win and snag the pool record from Bass … Joseph Raycroft (1:50.17) was eighth in the finale.
50 Freestyle: Cincinnati’s Josh Schneider set the standard in the morning with a Bearcat, BIG EAST and Trees Pool record by swimming an NCAA A-cut 19.08 … Schneider, the top seed entering the event, tied California’s Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian for the fastest collegiate time in the nation this season … Schneider won the finals in 19.10 as John Lytle was the top Irish finisher in 20.35 for seventh … three Irish swimmers finished among the top spots in the consolation heat: Andrew Hoffman (1st – 20.62), Kevin Overholt (3rd – 20.79) and Christopher Johnson (4th – 20.81).
200 Freestyle Relay: Sixth-seeded Notre Dame went 1:20.93 in the race for third overall with an NCAA B-cut time of 1:20.93 … Lytle, Overholt, Joshua Nosal and Hoffman clinched the bronze for the Irish … Louisville set a pool record in 1:20.12 and won the event.
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