Dec. 5, 2014
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Notre Dame men’s swimming & diving team got off to a fast start at the Iowa Hawkeye Invitational Friday, earning eight top-5 finishes in the swimming events. Divers Joseph Coumos and Michael Kreft finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 3-meter competition.
“We had a strong first day,” Irish head coach Matt Tallman reflects. “The guys made some good adjustments between the prelim swims and the finals. We have our work cut out for us if we are going to win the meet, but today, we were able to accomplish a lot of positives.”
The morning preliminary session started with the 500 free, where no less than 16 Irish entrants competed for a chance to swim in the evening final race. Jonathan Williamson emerged with the top time in the morning – fifth place, 4:27.77 – followed by Joseph Petrone (eighth, 4:28.92), Thomas Anderson (11th, 4:29.81) and Patrick Murphy (12th, 4:30.74). Benjamin Jany, Richard Mannix, John Nappi and James McEldrew rounded out the top 20.
In the finals, Williamson again placed fifth with his 4:27.38 showing, earning 14 points for the Irish. Petrone finished tied for seventh, touching the wall in 4:29.38 and tallying 11.5 points.
In the 200 IM, Zachary Stephens had his strongest showing of the season thus far, earning an NCAA B cut in the preliminaries with his 1:44.26 time. Kevin Bradley finished fifth in 1:49.93, while Reed Fujan earned a sixth-place finish with his 1:50.09 showing. Patrick Olson, Thomas Anderson and Cameron Miller finished eighth ninth and tenth, respectively.
In the finals, Olson swam to a dramatic finish, claiming third place (1:49.56), while Anderson finished fifth (1:49.87) and Kevin Bradley placed seventh (1:50.25).
In the last preliminary swim of the morning, Justin Plaschka finished eighth in the 50 free (20.75), just barely missing the NCAA B Cut. He swam to a second-place finish in the finals, posting a 20.22 time.
In the relay events, the A team (Stephens, Plaschka, Olson and Bradley) took second in the 200 free (1:20.63), while the pairing of Bogac Ayhan, Stephens, Williamson and Plaschka claimed first in the 400 medley relay – 3:13.25 – and earned a whopping 40 points for the Irish. Stephens’ lead-off split time of 20.02 marked his second B-cut qualifier of the day.
In diving, in addition to Coumos’s and Kreft’s top-5 finishes, Nick Nemetz took 10th (296.50), Ted Wagner finished 12th (289.00), Peter Myers placed 13th (271.00) and James Lichtenstein claimed 15th (254.00). the 1-meter event will take place tomorrow as swimming resumes.
Fans can follow this week’s action via live results, and on the “Meet Mobile” swim meet application on cell phones and tablets. Download the application at this link: http://www.active.com/mobile/meet-mobile-app.
Tweets and Facebook posts will also be updated regularly throughout the weekend on the team accounts.
Lizzie Mikes,
Media Services Coordinator