Senior swimmer Jeff Wood.

Irish Men Set Three School Marks On Night One Of BIG EAST Championships

Feb. 14, 2007

Results

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team established three school records on Wednesday evening during the first day of competition at the 2007 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships in the Nassau County Aquatics Center. The Irish placed second in both the 800-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relays with school-record and NCAA consideration times. Notre Dame is in first place after the first three events of the meet.

In the first men’s swimming event of the night, Notre Dame’s team of John Lytle (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area), Ted Brown (Kokomo, Ind./Western), Andrew Hoffman (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead) and Jeff Wood (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport/Indiana) placed second in the 800 free relay in a school-record and NCAA consideration time of 6:32.67, eclipsing the old mark of 6:35.47, which was established at last year’s conference meet. Lytle’s lead-off leg time of 1:38.35 surpassed Ray Fitzpatrick’s school-record 200 free mark of 1:38.36, which was set in 2000. West Virginia (Zoltan Povazsai, Pablo Marmolejo, Tony Cisneros, Nick Delic) edged out the Irish and took first in a time of 6:32.21.

The Irish followed that up with another school-record performance in the 200 medley relay. Wood, Sam Pendergast (Melbourne, Australia), Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) and Louis Cavadini (South Bend, Ind./Riley) combined to register a time of 1:29.09, which was also an NCAA `B’ cut. The old record was 1:30.04 from last year’s BIG EAST meet. West Virginia (Ivan Tolic, Kevin Donohue, Nick Delic, Andrew Langfield) notched its second win by touching the wall in 1:27.21.

In diving action, sophomore Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and junior Sam Stoner (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) both earned all-BIG EAST honors by placing second and third, respectively, off of the one-meter board. Bulfin, who also garnered all-BIG EAST honors off the one-meter last year by placing third, totaled 334.25 points during Wednesday’s finals. Stoner, an all-conference performer last season off the three-meter, recorded 329.40 points to capture his second career all-BIG EAST honor. Junior Steven Crowe (Brockport, N.Y./Brockport) placed sixth with a point total of 299.30 to earn 13 additional team points for the Fighting Irish.

The Irish, who are in pursuit of their third straight BIG EAST title, have 114 points, while Pittsburgh and West Virginia both have 87 to round out the top three teams of the 11-team field after the first day of the meet.

The final three days of competition will have preliminary events beginning at 10:00 a.m. and finals at 6:00 p.m. Thursday’s action will feature the 500-yard free, 200-yard IM, 50-yard free, 200-yard free relay and the women’s one-meter diving.

For more information on the 2007 BIG EAST Swimming & 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.

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