Feb. 16, 2001
The University of Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team remained in fourth place after day two of the 2001 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Island, N.Y. The Irish have 279.50 points and trail four-time defending-champion Pittsburgh, which is in first place with 446 points. The race for second place is still close, though, as St. John’s (296) and Rutgers (287) are just ahead of the Irish while Virginia Tech (279) and Syracuse (262) are close behind. Notre Dame, which has finished second in each of the past two BIG EAST Championships, was also in fourth place after the first day of competition.
The diving squad, which was undefeated in the dual-meet season, led the Irish on day two as sophomore Andy Maggio (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished third in the three-meter diving with 485.80. Herb Huesman (Cincinnati, Ohio) also dove well, finishing with 448.25 points in fifth place.
The 400 individual medley was another good event for Notre Dame as junior Jonathan Pierce (Newburgh, Ind.) finished fourth and senior Ryan Verlin (Rye, N.Y.) was sixth.
Other top performers for the Irish were sophomore Jason Fitzpatrick (Gilbert, Ariz.) and the 800 freestyle relay team. Fitzpatrick finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke and the team of Pierce, Matt Grunewald (Centerville, Ohio), Austin Anderson (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Matt Obringer (Jacksonville, Fla.) also garnered sixth-place points.
Full results of the first two days can be obtained at http://www.bigeast.org/sports/swimming. The 2001 BIG EAST Championships conclude Saturday with preliminaries at 10:30 a.m. and finals beginning at 6:30 p.m.