Feb. 7, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving squad concluded their 2014-15 dual meet season with a 226-66 victory over the Vikings of Cleveland State on Saturday. The Irish finish the year with a 6-6 record overall and a 5-3 mark at home in head coach Matt Tallman’s inaugural campaign at the helm.
The highlight of the meet came in the diving well as sophomore Joe Coumos broke the school record in the 3-meter springboard, winning the event with 409.27 points, breaking Eric Lex’s old record of 405.15 set on January 29, 2011. James Lichtenstein (371.25) and Nick Nemetz (364.95) finished in second and third for Notre Dame in the event.
On the 1-meter boards, the Irish again completed the sweep with Coumos (361.35), Nemetz (332.62) and Kreft (312.29) claiming the top three spots.
On the swimming side of the meet, Tallman was focused on determining some last-minute details before the ACC Championship meet in a couple of weeks.
“We set a line-up to just learn a few things,” said Tallman. “We are trying to fine tune some other things. The guys stepped up. We raced pretty well. I was pretty pleased as we did enough things correctly. We just need to use that moving forward as we head into the ACC meet.”
The quartet of Justin Plaschka, Cameron Miller, Bogac Ayhan and Zachary Stephens won the 200 medley relay for the Irish to open the swimming portion of meet in 1:30.64. Irish teammates Rob Whitacre, Andrew Jensen, Harlin Bessire and Reed Fujan took second with a 1:33.78 time.
In the next event, the trio of Richard Mannix, Tom Anderson and Miller swept the 1,000 free for Notre Dame with performances of 9:14.69, 9:44.08 and 10:07.81, respectively.
The Irish made it three straight victories as Michael Hudspith won the 200 free with a 1:40.38 mark. John Nappi (1:42.23), Stephens (1:43.42) and Jonathan Williamson (1:44.96) rounded out the Irish contingent in the event.
Whitacre led another Irish sweep in the 100 back with his 50.76 showing, while Benjamin Jany (52.71) and Broderick Kelley (53.26) took second and third for Notre Dame in the event.
The pair of Michael Schiffer and Jensen took first and second for the Irish in the next event, the 100 breast, stopping the clock at 57.86 and 58.50 respectively. Schiffer’s victory improved the winning streak in swimming events to five for Notre Dame.
The Irish quickly made it six straight victories with Kevin Bradley’s victory in the 200 butterfly (1:51.38). Fujan (1:54.23) and Patrick Murphy (1:56.07) finished close behind in second and third.
Cleveland State broke the Irish win streak as the Vikings took the 50 free race. Gabe Ostler and Plaschka took second and third for Notre Dame in the splash-and-dash event with times of 21.19 and 21.20 respectively.
The Irish again claimed second and third in the 100 free with performances by Stephens (45.68) and Plaschka (46.22). Mannix won his second event of the meet as he took the 200 back in 1:50.27, while Fujan took second place for Notre Dame in 1:57.15.
Trent Jackson picked up his first win of the afternoon as he took the 200 breast in 2:08.36 as the lone Irish swimmer in the event.
Jany led yet another Irish sweep in the 500 free with his victory in 4:39.56. Matthew DeBlasio (4:39.82), Joseph Petrone (4:39.95) and Kevin Bradley (4:44.99) finished in second, third and fourth place.
Patrick Olson touched the pad first in the 100 fly with a 49.73 showing, winning the tenth swimming event for the Irish. Ayhan (50.07) and Whitacre (52.08) finished closed behind in second and third place.
Williamson used a fast start in the butterfly leg to pull ahead and never look back in the 200 individual medley. He won the event with a time of 1:53.39, and Fujan took second for the Irish (1:55.53).
The Irish closed out the swimming portion of the meet the same way they started, as the foursome of Plaschka, Petrone, Jackson and Bradley won the 200 free relay in 1:23.90. Kelley, Murphy, Miller and DeBlasio took third in 1:25.59.
The Irish now turn their sights toward the ACC Championships as Tallman prepares to start resting his swimmers to allow for their peak performances at the championship meet.
“We will start coming down (in yardage) on an individual basis,” explained Tallman. “We are going to start monitoring yardage and paying attention to make sure we do everything possible correctly so we can be really fresh when we get (to the ACC Championships).”
The Irish divers will start the ACC Championships with the diving events, which are scheduled for February 18-21. The swimming portion of the ACC Championships commences on February 25th and ends on February 28th.
Andrew Bartolini
–ND–