Feb. 20, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Swimming records fell Friday and All-American diver Michael Bulfin led the Irish off the 3-meter board with a runner-up finish as the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team remained in first place through three days of action at 2009 BIG EAST Conference Championships.
The Irish (567) stand on top of Louisville (530), Pittsburgh (355.5) and West Virginia (271).
“One heck of a meet, one heck of a meet,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “Again, our divers were superb tonight. It’ll be a great meet going into the last day. We know the 37-point lead is not enough to be comfortable tomorrow. We also know that all of our guys need to give their best effort when we need it most.”
The meet wraps up Saturday at 10 a.m. (ET). Live stats and video coverage can be accessed at UND.com. For up-to-the-minute results and scores, sign up for IRISH ALERTS text messaging services at UND.com.
400 Individual Medley: Daniel Rave pressed teammate Andrew Deters in the consolation round … Rave came on strong in the free section with both flipping in unison … in the end, Deters (3:56.70) touched first overall for a season-best time in front of a relentless Rave (3:57.19) … Michael Sullivan emerged out of the freestyle and into the breaststroke with the lead over West Virginia’s Michael Walker … but Walker built a lead that was too great to overcome, as he would set the meet record in 3:45.45 … Sullivan (3:51.13) settled for third, but in doing so achieved a school record and NCAA B-cut.
100 Fly: MacKenzie LeBlanc carded a season-best 48.49 to finish sixth overall.
200 Free: John Lytle set a school record in the morning with a 1:37.04 to hold the top seed heading into the evening session … Andrew Hoffman showed a burst of speed after the 100-yard mark and built momentum over the rest of the field in his preliminary heat to finish in 1:37.25 … the pair held the top two positions in the final heat … it was there that Lytle (1:35.79) managed to beat out Louisville’s Brendon Andrews on the final stroke to maintain his record-setting form … Hoffman spurted to a 1:37.82 for fourth … Steven Brus finished sixth in 1:38.22 … Danny Lutkus punched in at 1:38.30 for seventh-place … Joshua Nosal took the cake in the evening’s initial final heat with a 1:38.31.
100 Breast: Daniel Rave went 57.22 in the evening and Joseph Raycroft followed his 56.37 preliminary time with a season-best 56.35 in the final round for seventh.
100 Back: Mitchell Sherman (49.56) bulleted his way to the finals by racking one of the program’s fastest times ever in the event … yet another remarkable performance came off the stroke of Jeff Wood (49.46) in the prelims … Sherman went 49.60 to finish seventh in the finals, followed by Wood’s 49.87.
400 Medley Relay: Sherman, Raycroft, LeBlanc and Lytle teamed for a fifth-place finish in 3:16.74 to break a school record.
3-meter Diving: Bulfin (379.55) nearly knocked off Pittsburgh’s Alex Volovetski (387.15) in a final that came down to the very last dive, which pushed Volovetski in front of Bulfin’s leading score … Eric Lex earned all-BIG EAST honors with a third-place 362.10 … Caleb Dunnichay (336.20) was fourth, Nathan Geary (317.00) was fifth and Wes Villaflor (303.45) tacked on a seventh-place finish.
–ND–