Swimming Set to Defend BIG EAST Title
February 15, 2012 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 15, 2012
The nationally ranked U of L swimming and diving teams travel to the University of Pittsburgh this week to compete in the BIG EAST Championships. U of L is the defending champion in both the men and women competitions, and are the favorites to win for a second consecutive year. If the No. 12-ranked men win this week, at the Trees Pool on the University of Pittsburgh's campus, it will be their third consecutive BIG EAST title.
After the conclusion of last weekend's scored diving events, Notre Dame holds a strong lead in the men's team standings with 129 points. Pittsburgh currently sits in second place with 72 points and West Virginia is on third with 46 points. In the women's competition, No. 24-ranked Louisville has jumped out to the early lead with 74 points while Notre Dame sits three points behind in second place with 71 points. Rutgers has recorded 52 points and currently holds third place.
On Wednesday, the competition begins with four events starting at 6 P.M. First the men and women's 800-yard freestyle relays. Then the men and women's 200-yard medley relay will follow. On Thursday, the prelims start for 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard freestyle relay. Those races will begin at 10 A.M. with the finals for all of those events beginning at 6 P.M. that evening. The final day of the competition will include the 400-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, and the 400-yard medley relay. Just like Thursday all of the prelims to those races begin at 10 A.M. and the finals will be held at 6 P.M. \
Louisville's men and women rank in the nations' top-25 in the CollegeSwimming.com/CSCAA Coaches' poll. The men come in at No. 12 after a strong season which saw the defeat of No. 11 Indiana in Bloomington. The Cardinal women find themselves among the country's elite at No. 24.
In what will be a highly competitive championship, to date, athletes from six schools have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships. Cincinnati (Josefin Wede, Helena Pikhartova), Louisville (Dani Barbiea, Lacey Bobo, Aileen Cole, Krissie Brandenburg, Brendon Andrews, Matt Schlytter, Caryle Blondell, Samuel Hoekstra, Grite Apanaviciute, Eszter Povazsay, Joao De Lucca, Abigail Chin, Hanna Cowley, Erika Wozniak, Victoria Mitchell, Albert Lloyd, Alex Burtch, Raine Thompson, Lindsay Rogers, Tim Collins, Kameron Chastain, Tanja Kylliainen, Fanny Lilliestrom, Carlos Almeida, Riley Martin, Pedro Oliveira, Kenneth Crapse, Addison Bray, Kevin Bandy and Gisselle Kohoyda), Notre Dame (Frank Dyer, Chris Johnson, Kevin Overholt, John McGinley, Amy Prestinario, Emma Reaney, Kelly Ryan, Hannah Bowen, Zach Stephens, Suzanne Bessire, Bill Bass, Bertie Nel, Sarah Dotzel, Lauren Stauder and Bridget Casey), Pittsburgh (Alex Rodenkirk, Morne Boshoff, Jon Lierley, Jake Van Roekel, Adam Maczewski, Kourosh Ahani and Ben Solari), Rutgers (Trisha Averill), and West Virginia (Tim Squires, Taylor Camp, Scott Fetsko, Brad Eishenseer, Kale Kudma, Mandie Nugent, Danielle Smith, Kata Fodor, Rachael Burnett, Jake Querciagrossa, Daeton Davenport, Breanna McCann and Julie Ogden) will all be represented.
