Feb. 16, 2007
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team will enter the final day of competition at the 2007 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships in first place. The Irish, who began the day in second place, surged past West Virginia to now hold a 45.5-point lead over the Mountaineers (554-508.5) and the rest of the 11-team field after the first three days of action in the Nassau County Aquatic Center. The Irish are in pursuit of their third straight league title. The meet’s final two sessions will take place on Saturday.
Notre Dame’s top finish on Friday came in the three-meter diving competition. Sophomore Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) placed second with a point total of 361.00. Bulfin also took second off of the one-meter board on Wednesday. He now has three career all-BIG EAST honors. His junior teammate Sam Stoner (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) placed fourth off of the three-meter with 309.05 points.
The Irish established three school records on the day. Senior Alan Carter (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) set the 100-yard backstroke record with a time of 50.05 during the morning’s preliminary session. That mark would drop two heats later as sophomore Jeff Wood (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport/Indiana) touched the wall in 49.51.
Freshman John Lytle (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area) also broke his own program record in the 200-yard freestyle. He set the standard on Wednesday by going 1:38.35 as the lead-off leg of the 800 free relay and he went 1:38.06 during the finals of the 200 free on Friday. The Irish also eclipsed the 400-yard medley relay record of 3:16.93 by going 3:16.90 to place third overall and collect all-BIG EAST distinction. The time also was an NCAA consideration cut for the quartet of Wood, Sam Pendergast (Melbourne, Australia), Louis Cavadini (South Bend, Ind./Riley) and Lytle.
Lytle and senior co-captain Ted Brown (Kokomo, Ind./Western) both earned all-BIG EAST honors in the 200 free. Lytle took second in his school-record time, while Brown was third with a career-best time of 1:38.26. Brown now has three all-conference accolades during the 2007 BIG EAST meet and a total of nine for his distinguished Notre Dame career.
Cavadini, a senior co-captain, posted a career-best and NCAA consideration time of 48.28 in the 100-yard butterfly to finish fourth. Pendergast, a sophomore, also recorded an NCAA `B’ cut as he clocked a time of 55.05 in the 100-yard breast finals to place fifth.
The meet will conclude on Saturday with the 1,650-free, 200-yard back, 100-free, 200-breast, 200-fly, the women’s three-meter diving competition and the men’s and women’s 400-free relay. Prelims begin at 10:00 a.m., while finals are scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m.
For more information on the 2007 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships, including results from each day’s action, log onto und.com and go to the right-hand column of the men’s swimming and diving page and click on `BIG EAST Championship Page’. Live results can be found at sportstiming.com.
Stay up-to-date on the Notre Dame’s men’s swimming and diving team by logging on to und.com or by calling the Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.
FRIDAY EVENING SESSION RECAP (all events are finals):
400-Yard IM: Sean Mahoney and Michael Walker made it a 1-2 sweep for West Virginia with respective times of 3:51.84 and 3:52.63, respectively. Andrew Deters and Jay Vanden Berg were the top finishers for Notre Dame as they both touched the wall in 3:58.80. The Irish also took spots seven and eight with Justin Barber going 4:00.22 and Andrew MacKay finishing in 4:00.52. MacKay’s prelims time of 3:58.47 was a career-best mark.
100-Yard Butterfly: The Mountaineers also took the top-two spots as Andrew Langenfeld finished in a meet-record time of 47.72 and was followed closely by his teammate Pablo Marmolejo in 47.73. Senior Louis Cavadini placed fourth for the Irish in a career-best and NCAA consideration time of 48.28. Freshman Ross Moore finished fifth in 48.99, while Tim Kegelman was sixth in 49.04.
200-Yard Freestyle: West Virginia would take its third straight event, however Notre Dame captured five of the top eight spots in the finals. Zoltan Povazsai placed first in 1:36.47 for the Mountaineers. John Lytle and Ted Brown copped all-BIG EAST honors for the Irish by placing second and third, respectively. Lytle, a freshman, touched the wall in a school-record time of 1:38.06, while Brown, a senior, finished in a career-best time of 1:38.26 to earn his ninth career all-conference accolade and the third of the 2007 meet. Lytle snapped his old program mark of 1:38.35, which he established in the 800 free relay on Wednesday. The Irish also took spots six through eight. Rob Seery placed sixth in 1:39.61, while Andrew Hoffman was seventh in 1:39.89 and Brian Freeman finished in 1:40.81 to place eighth.
100-Yard Breaststroke: The Mountaineers took another race as Kevin Donohue touched the wall in 53.89. Sam Pendergast was the top finisher for the Fighting Irish as he placed fifth with an NCAA `B’ cut time of 55.05.
100-Yard Backstroke: Ivan Tolic made it five straight wins for West Virginia by finishing in 48.39. Notre Dame’s Jeff Wood clocked a fourth-place finish with a time of 49.99. Alan Carter was eighth for the Irish in 50.25. Carter set the school record with a time of 50.05 during the morning’s preliminary session. Wood established a new mark two heats later by going 49.51.
Three-Meter Diving: Jeremy Stutlz from Pittsburgh won with a point total of 368.45. Notre Dame’s Michael Bulfin captured second place by totaling 361.00 points. He also placed second in the one-meter competition on Wednesday. His teammates Sam Stoner and Steven Crowe placed fourth and eighth, respectively, off of the three-meter with scores of 309.05 and 262.25.
400-Yard Medley Relay: West Virginia bested the field with a meet-record time of 3:12.36. Notre Dame established a school record by going 3:16.90, which also was an NCAA consideration cut.