Nov. 14, 2003
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team (1-5) beat Louisville (2-11), but fell to #19 Brigham Young (4-1) and Iowa (5-1) Friday afternoon in a quadrangular meet in the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The Irish, who beat the Cardinals 223-62 and lost to Iowa 174-119 and BYU 178-116, will return to action Dec. 4-6, playing host to the Notre Dame Invitational, their premiere event of the fall semester.
Notre Dame held early leads against all three teams, but eventually BYU and Iowa, which downed the Cougars to go unbeaten on the afternoon, took control. The Irish won all 14 swimming events against Louisville and took first in five races against each of the other teams.
The win over the Cardinals was one of the most lopsided in the 46-year history of Irish varsity swimming and diving. The 223 points and 161-point margin of victory were both just off school records, ranking second in the respective categories. A Nov. 8, 1996 win at Boston College by a score of 234-66 remains tops in both points scored in a dual meet and margin of victory in a dual meet (168).
Notre Dame had three overall winners. The Irish took the top two spots in the 1,000-yard freestyle, with freshman Ted Brown (Kokomo, Ind./Western H.S.) and sophomore Patrick Davis (Clearwater, Fla./Jesuit H.S.) beating the field by more than three seconds. Brown finished first in 9:28.64, establishing himself as the second-fastest Irish swimmer in history in the event. His time was the fourth-quickest ever, behind only three times turned in by 2002 graduate and school recordholder Jonathan Pierce.
Davis was second in 9:32.33 in the 1,000 before posting a season best in the 500 freestyle, winning it by 2.5 seconds, in 4:37.03. The time met the “A” standard for the BIG EAST Championships, marking the second race Davis has an “A” time in this fall (also the 1,650 free).
Freshman Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb H.S.) won the 100 butterfly in 49.91, which was .63 seconds ahead of second place. In his first collegiate semester, he has posted two of the top six times in school history in the event. His time on Friday tied for the fifth-quickest in the Irish annals. Kegelman was third in the 200 butterfly, behind a pair of Hawkeyes with a time of 1:52.67.
The Irish opened the meet strong, finishing second in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:32.31, just behind an Iowa team that set a Rolfs Aquatic Center record by finishing in 1:31.57. The previous pool record was set by a Western Kentucky team in the 1998 Notre Dame Invitational. The quartet of sophomores Doug Bauman (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Preparatory School) and Tim Randolph (Crown Point, Ind./Merrillville H.S.), Kegelman, and junior Frank Krakowski (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Preparatory School) posted the fourth-fastest time in Irish history in the event.
Three Irish swimmers — senior co-captain Matt Obringer (Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School) and freshmen Justin Barber (Carson City, Nev./Carson H.S.) and Alan Carter (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park H.S.) — punched tickets for the BIG EAST Championships on Friday, posting their first “A” times of the fall. In all, 15 of Notre Dame’s 29 student-athletes already have qualified for the conference meet, while seven more have turned in one or more “B” times, but have yet to register an “A” standard.
Carter registered “A” times in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. He was fifth in the former in 51.91 and seventh in the 200 with a time of 1:54.69. He already is the ninth-fastest Irish swimmer ever in the 100, an event in which Notre Dame took fourth, fifth, and sixth on Friday. Bauman led the way in 51.08 with sophomore Steve Shomberger (Spotsylvania, Va./Courtland H.S.) sixth. In the 200, Bauman was third in 1:50.73, followed by freshman Brian Freeman (Sanger, Calif./Immanuel H.S.) and Shomberger.
Obringer turned in an “A” time of 1:41.04 in finishing second in the 200 freestyle. He has “B” times in the 100 and 500 free, with the latter coming on Friday in a fourth-place finish of 4:42.56, a season best.
Barber qualified for the league championships in the 400 individual medley, coming in sixth in 4:07.70. Brown was third in the race, touching the wall in 4:03.92 in further establishing himself as one of the most versatile swimmers on the Irish. In his first collegiate semester, he already has “A” qualifying times in four different events — 200, 500, and 1650 free and 400 IM — and “B” times in two others (200 fly and 200 IM).
In the final event of the meet, Notre Dame turned in a season-best time in coming in third in the 200 free relay. The team of Kegelman, Randolph, Krakowski, and freshman Louis Cavadini (South Bend, Ind./Riley H.S.) finished in 1:23.79.
Krakowski had season-low times in two events, finishing fourth in the 100 butterfly and third in the 50 freestyle, leading the Irish in the latter with a time of 21.26.
Randolph led Notre Dame in the 100 free, with a fifth-place time of 47.24.
Sophomore Tyler Grenda (Hockessin, Del./Salesianum H.S.) paced the Irish in the breaststroke events, posting season bests in both races. He was fifth in the 200 in 2:07.91 and seventh in the 100 in 59.01.
Freshman Scott Coyle (Indianapolis, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern H.S.) finished fifth in both diving competitions in facing a field that included three NCAA qualifiers from a season ago.