BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame’s swimming and diving team opened their season with a strong showing in a series of dual meets. The team took on Indiana University, Kentucky and Missouri in three separate dual meets run alongside each other.
The women finished the day undefeated, as they topped Missouri with a score of 211.50-88.50 while they bested Kentucky, 172.50-127.50, and tied Indiana 150-150. The men fell in tight competition as they lost to Missouri (189-111), Kentucky (154.50-143.50) and Indiana (213-87).
The Irish recorded seven first-place finishes in their first meet of the 2018-19 season, with Abbie Dolan and Zach Yeadon each posting two. Dolan won both the 100 and 200-yard freestyles while Lindsay Stone (1000-yard freestyle), Luciana Thomas (200-yard butterfly) and Bayley Stewart (200-yard backstroke) all finished on top of the board today.
“I am very proud of our women,” head coach Mike Litzinger said. “They continue to work together as a team and find a way to compete. They are finding out that they can be one of the NCAA elite.”
On the men’s side, Yeadon claimed the first-place finish in both the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle.
“It was a productive morning for our men. We are very young and translating great practices into college dual meet performances will take a bit of time,” Litzinger added.
Diver, Kelly Straub was the highest scorer in the 1-meter diving competition, tallying 145.50 points for the first-place finish.
How It Happened
The first race of the day featured the Irish relay team of Carly Quast, Meaghan O’Donnell, Cailey Grunhard and Abbie Dolan finishing second overall with a 200-yard medley relay time of 1:41.09. The first men’s team in the pool finished fifth in the same event, touching the wall in 1:30.45 behind a team comprised of Jack Montessi, Steven Shek, Zachary Smith and Tabahn Afrik.
Notre Dame kicked off the individual races with a first place finish from Lindsay Stone in the 1000-yard freestyle. In her first race of the 2018-19 season, Stone finished in 9:54.82 with Sinead Eksteen, Rebecca Walton and Reilly Lanigan finishing just behind. The 1000-yard freestyle marked the first collegiate race for Eksteen as she finished fifth overall in the event with a final time of 10:09.35.
Sophomore, Zach Yeadon finished the 1000-yard freestyle sweep for the Irish, taking first in the men’s competition. His 9:00.25 finish was the best among all competitors by nearly 13 seconds. Sadler McKeen and Joe Turk also raced for the Irish, with all three recording times under 10 minutes.
Rebounding from the 200-yard medley relay team finish, Dolan took first overall in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.32. In the men’s contest of the same event, Afrik recorded a time of 1:40.35, first among the Irish and sixth overall. Freshmen Max Miranda and Dan Bannon made their collegiate debut for the Irish in the race.
The Irish women swept IU and Missouri in the 100-yard backstroke when they took second, third and fourth overall. Freshman Bayley Stewart finished second overall and first for Notre Dame, touching the wall in 54.76 seconds. She was followed less than half a second later by Irish teammates Alice Treuth and Carly Quast as they finished third and fourth, respectively.
Montessi took third in the 100-yard backstroke and first for the Irish as he completed the race in 49.65. Will Cumberland finished sixth overall for the men while Nick Milikich and John Paul Becker competed for Notre Dame.
Senior team captain, Meaghan O’Donnell finished her first race in 2018-19 with a fifth-place overall showing in the 100-yard breaststroke. She was followed shortly after by Sarah Nicholls, Sammie Eyolfson and Paige Kaplan. Matt Limbacher completed his first collegiate race, the 100-yard backstroke, in 57.42 seconds. Andrew Winton and Josh Bottleberghe also saw their first collegiate race action in the event.
Luciana Thomas continued the Irish first-place finishes when she put up a time of 1:59.31 in the 200-yard butterfly. Nikki Smith finished second while Katie Rentz placed ninth and Maddie LaPorte was 12th. Marton Barta placed second in the men’s race with a time of 1:47.93. Zach Smith also placed in the top-five, touching the wall in 1:49.48 and Matt Grauslys rounded out the Irish in the top-10 with a ninth place finish and time of 1:50.70.
Four Irish women finished the 50-yard freestyle in the top-10 with Sofia Revilak coming in third overall and first for Notre Dame. Katie Smith, Carly Quast and Rachel Wittmer also placed in the top-10, all finishing within 0.34 seconds of each other. The men’s side saw another close finish with just 1.61 seconds separating all 16 participants. Dan Fujan finished first for the Irish, followed by Brendan Santana, Dan Bannon and Matt Somerville.
In the first round of diving, Kelly Straub came out on top in the 1-meter competition, recording 145.50 points. Erin Isola placed fourth with 136.50 points followed by Annie Wiese (132.30), Claire Andrews (115.50) and Kate McCahon (110.80). Austin Flaute led the Irish men, finishing in 12th with a score of 130.15. David Petrison (127.70) and Christian Herrera (122.60) also competed.
Abbie Dolan recorded her second first-place individual finish when she touched the wall of the 100-yard freestyle in 50.23 seconds. Skylar Fore finished third while Sofia Revilak came in tied for sixth and Lauren Heller placed ninth. Tabahn Afrik completed the 100-yard freestyle in 45.46 for third overall. Aaron Schultz, Dan Fujan and Dan Bannon also swam in the race.
In the 200-yard backstroke, Bayley Stewart topped the leaderboard with a time of 1:56.80. Alice Treuth and Kyra Sarazen also placed in the top-five. Will Cumberland led the men’s squad with a time of 1:50.65 for seventh overall. The Irish also saw Joe Turk, Jack Montessi and Nick Milikich competing.
The Irish had three women race in the 200-yard breaststroke, all finishing 1.1 seconds apart. Sammie Eyolfson came in first for Notre Dame with a time of 2:20.14, followed by Sarah Nicholls (2:20.16) and Meaghan O’Donnell (2:21.89). In the men’s 200-yard breaststroke race, Rex Riley finished sixth overall while Andrew Winton and Josh Bottleberghe tied for seventh.
Lindsay Stone finished her day with a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:52.14. Sinead Eksteen completed the race in 4:55.42 while Maddy LaPorte placed 12th in 5:02.56.
Zach Yeadon ended his day with another first-place finish, completing the 500-yard freestyle in 4:23.82. Sadler McKeen and Max Miranda also finished in the top-10.
Kelly Straub, again, finished first for the Irish in the diving competition, posting a score of 140.05 in the 3-meter finals. Erin Isola (132.90), Claire Andrews (132.75), Annie Wiese (128) and Kate McCahon (102.65) concluded the day for the women divers. Austin Flaute led the men with a final score of 141.80 in the 3-meter portion while Christian Herrera scored 126.15 and David Petrison recorded 111.55 points.
Erin Sheehan and Cailey Grunhard placed in the top-five of the 100-yard butterfly standings, with Rachel Wittmer (ninth) and Nikki Smith (10th) rounding out the women’s side. Zachary Smith placed second in the men’s race, touching the wall in 48.65 seconds. Marton Barta, Matt Grauslys and Brendan Santana also finished the race, all within 0.31 seconds.
In the final individual women’s race of the day, Luciana Thomas claimed the top spot in the 200-yard IM, touching the wall in 2:04.75. Kyra Sarazen (2:06.18), Erin Sheehan (2:06.43) and Nikki Smith (2:07.26) ended the women’s individual races of the day. Marton Barta placed second in the final men’s individual race, with a time of 1:48.81. Three others, Andrew Winton, Will Cumberland and Max Miranda completed the day for the Notre Dame men.
The last two relays of the day saw the team finish in second (women) and fourth (men) overall. Abbie Dolan, Carly Quast, Skylar Fore and Sofia Revilak finished with a 400-yard freestyle relay time of 3:23.91 while the men featured Tabahn Afrik, Zach Yeadon, Aaron Schultz and Sadler McKeen completing the day’s event with a 3:00.75 finishing time.
Up Next For The Irish
The Irish will travel to Georgia Tech next, for a dual meet against the Yellow Jackets on October 20, before hosting their first home meet of the season, a dual against Purdue, October 26.
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