Jan. 13, 2007
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The No. 16 Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team won six of 13 events to take a quad meet against Cleveland State, Duquesne and Xavier on Saturday afternoon in the Robert F. Busbey Natatorium. Senior Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) and sophomore Jeff Wood (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport/Indiana) both collected individual wins and were part of the victorious 200-yard medley relay.
Notre Dame defeated Cleveland State 152-91, Duquesne 156-41 and Xavier 168-29. By winning the quad meet, Notre Dame improves to 8-0 on the season. That marks the program’s best start to a season since the 1974-75 campaign when the Irish started out of the gate 10-0.
Other winners for the Fighting Irish on the day were freshman Andrew Deters (Claremont, Calif./Claremont) in the 1,000-yard free (9:27.51), senior Ted Brown (Kokomo, Ind./Western) in the 200-yard free (1:41.19) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:25.68). That quartet consisted of junior Jay Vanden Berg (Holland, Mich./Southfield Christian School), senior Justin Barber (Carson City, Nev./Carson), junior Rob Seery (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City) and senior Brian Freeman (Sanger, Calif./Immanuel). Sophomore Sam Pendergast (Melbourne, Australia) and freshman John Lytle (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area) joined Kegelman and Wood on the winning 200 medley relay (1:33.30).
Kegelman led a 1-2-3 Notre Dame finish in the 100 fly as he placed first in 50.70. Freshman Ray Toomey (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) was second in 51.14 and his classmate Ross Moore (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) took third in 51.32.
Wood’s time of 4:33.66 in the 500 free also spearheaded a 1-2-3 finish for the Irish. Freeman took second with a mark of 4:39.02, while Brown was third in 4:43.16.
Notre Dame also had a dominating performance in the 200 free as the Irish took the top four spots beginning with Brown. Freshman Andrew Hoffman (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead) was second in 1:41.96, followed by senior Louis Cavadini (South Bend, Ind./Riley) in 1:42.21 and Wood in 1:42.45.
Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas), who posted two wins in Notre Dame’s win over Oakland on Friday evening, placed second off the three-meter board with 359.25 points, while junior Sam Stoner (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) was third with 333.07. They would finish in those same spots in the one-meter competition. Bulfin compiled 321.60 points and Stoner registered 280.35.
Notre Dame also went 2-3 in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. In the 50, Lytle recorded a time of 21.45, while Kegelman was right behind him with a mark of 21.61. The 100 free featured Hoffman going 47.41 to take second and Cavadini was third in 47.78.
Senior Alan Carter (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) finished second in the 100-yard back by going 53.29, while junior Andrew MacKay (Georgetown, Grand Cayman/Cayman Prep) was third in 53.41 and sophomore Mitchell Sherman (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) was fourth in 54.30.
Three other top-three performances for the Irish were Pendergast placing second in the 100-yard breast in 57.87, Vanden Berg going 4:07.86 in the 400 IM to place second and Seery taking third in the 1,000 free by touching the wall in 9:45.95.
The Fighting Irish return home to take on Northwestern on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 2:00 p.m.
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