Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Men's Swimming And Diving Looking Forward To The Shamrock Classic This Weekend

Feb. 21, 2001

Complete Release in PDF Format, including updated top-times list and complete team results for the season.
dot.gifspacer.gifDownload Free Acrobat Reader

WHO:

The Notre Dame Men’s Swimming and Diving team

WHAT:

2001 Shamrock Classic

WHERE:

Rolfs Aquatic Center, Notre Dame, Ind.

WHEN:

Saturday, Feb. 24 – Sunday, Feb. 25

Irish take to the pool for the 2001 Shamrock Classic:

The University of Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team finished fourth out of 13 teams in the 2001 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Island, N.Y., last weekend (Feb. 15-17). It was the fourth consecutive top-four finish for the Irish, as the team finished in second place in 1999 and 2000 and was fourth in 1998.

Pittsburgh claimed its fifth consecutive conference championship with 647 points. St. John’s (428) was second and Virginia Tech (417) finished third, while the Irish had 385.5 points.

Notre Dame will compete in the last meet of the year, the Shamrock Classic, this weekend (Feb. 24-25). A traditional late-season last chance meet, it will be the last opportunity for all swimmers to post NCAA consideration times.

2001 BIG EAST Championship Recap:

As the Irish posted a fourth-place finish at the league championship this year, a number of swimmer posted some notable performances.

Junior Jonathan Pierce (Newburgh, Ind.) finished fourth in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 15:43.73 after winning the event in the previous two conference meets. Pierce broke his own school record in the 500 freestyle on Thursday and also reached an NCAA consideration time of 4:27.39. It marked the first occasion that Pierce has reached an NCAA “B” qualifying time in the 500 freestyle. The Notre Dame junior also placed fourth in the 400 IM with a team-best 3:59.57.

Other top performers for Notre Dame were senior Ryan Verlin (Rye, N.Y.) and the 400 freestyle relay team. Verlin finished sixth in the 200 butterfly and the team of Adam Cahill (Richmond, Ky.), Matt Hedden (Westerville, Ohio), Austin Anderson (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Matt Obringer (Jacksonville, Fla.) finished eighth.

The diving squad, which was undefeated in the dual-meet season, gained some valuable points for the Irish over the course of the meet. Sophomore Andy Maggio (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished third in three-meter diving with 485.80. Herb Huesman (Cincinnati, Ohio) also dove well, finishing with 448.25 points in fifth place. Maggio would also take second in the one-meter competition with 302.70 points, while Huesman was fourth with 282.90.