Nov. 12, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team will travel to Pittsburgh on Friday (Nov. 13) to take on the Panthers in a dual meet that features two of the top programs in the BIG EAST Conference. The meet begins at 4:30 p.m. (ET) on the eve of the football matchup between the two schools with live stats available at UND.com.
The Irish (3-1) aim to recover from last week’s loss at Purdue. John Lytle and Petar Petrovic both earned a pair of first-places finishes against the Boilermakers but the Irish dropped the overall decision by a 105-195 margin.
“This is an extremely exciting meet for the program each year, and more times than not, the winner has not been decided until the final relay,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “Pittsburgh has been the BIG EAST champion many times. The respect between the two programs and the level of sportsmanship is so high. This meet exemplifies the way college competition is supposed to be. The 2010 BIG EAST Championships will be hosted by Pittsburgh, so Friday’s action will have all the advantages of a dual meet with the excitement of a championship preview for February.”
During the 2008-09 season, the Halloween meet between Notre Dame and Pittsburgh was a back-and-forth battle that went down to the final seconds of the last event. Notre Dame earned the dual-meet victory with a brilliant performance in the home stretch of the contest by winning the 400 Free Relay to top the Panthers, 152-148.
Notre Dame has won five straight over the Panthers after dropping the first seven meetings between the two programs. The Irish are 5-4 against Pittsburgh under Welsh.
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