Sept. 30, 2016
EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Notre Dame women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams kicked off their 2016-17 season with impressive victories over both the Spartans of Michigan State (women: 169-54, men: 159-62) and the Hawkeyes of Iowa (women: 154-69, men: 151-72), as the Irish won 20 of the 24 events on the afternoon. The meet was unique in that it was swum outdoors and in a 50-meter Olympic pool, providing a fun environment to commence the season.
“Today was a great day for our teams,” said Head Coach Mike Litzinger. “We swam a non traditional format, outside, in the rain with Michigan State and Iowa and we had a lot of fun. Despite the conditions both teams swam exceptionally well and laid down the foundation for a great season. Our divers won both 3 meter contests, and got off to a great start as well. We want to continue our momentum through tough training and preparing for next week.”
Notre Dame opened the swimming portion of the meet winning both the women’s and men’s 400 meter medley relays. The quartet of Alice Treuth, Meaghan O’Donnell, Sofia Revilak and Lauren Heller touched the pad first in the women’s event with a 4:22.38 performance, while the foursome of Robby Whitacre, Trent Jackson, Matt Grauslys and Tabahn Afrik won the men’s event in 3:54.84.
The Irish continued their winning streak over the next five events, which included wins in the 800 meter freestyle by Molly Treble and Richard Mannix. The freshmen duo of Abbie Dolan and Aaron Schultz earned their first individual wins of their Notre Dame careers as both touched the pad first in the 200 meter freestyle. Katie Miller extended the consecutive event win streak to seven with her win in the 200 meter individual medley. In the men’s 200 meter individual medley, Kevin Bradley was the first Notre Dame swimmer to the wall, finishing in second place overall.
Following Nikki Smith’s second place performance in the 200 meter butterfly, the Irish went on a ten event win streak, highlighted by three event sweeps by the Irish women in the 200 meter backstroke, 400 meter freestyle and 200 meter breaststroke. During the ten event win streak, both Dolan (100 meter freestyle) and Mannix (400 meter freestyle) collected their second individual wins of the day. Other individual winners over the ten event stretch included Grauslys (200 meter butterfly), Afrik (100 meter freestyle), Treuth (200 meter backstroke), Whitacre (200 meter backstroke), Reilly Lanigan (400 meter freestyle), Danielle Margheret (200 meter breaststroke) and Jackson (200 meter breaststroke).
The Irish bookended the meet with another pair of relays wins in the women’s and men’s 400 meter freestyle relays. For the women, Dolan, Catherine Mulquin, Heller and Erin Sheehan combined for a 3:59.85 showing. On the men’s side, Daniel Speers, Justin Plaschka and Reed Fujan joined Afrik for the final Notre Dame win of the day.
In diving action, which occurred earlier in the afternoon, the duo of Claire Andrews and Joe Coumos swept the 3-meter springboard event for Notre Dame. The same pair also led the Irish off the 1-meter board with third-place finishes.
The Notre Dame women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams will return to action on October 7 when they host the annual Dennis Stark Relays at the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The meet, which was named in honor of the first head coach of both teams, begins at 5:00 pm.