Feb. 16, 2012
BIG EAST Championships (Day 2) 
PITTSBURGH – Six events and seven school records.
Notre Dame kept control of the leaderboard Thursday at the BIG EAST Conference Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships one day after setting school records in a pair of meet-opening relay events. The Irish surged to record four more records in as many events today at Trees Pool on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
“The team has been able to trust its training and take care of business so far,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “We’re doing all the small things very well, and hope to continue to do so for the rest of the meet.”
Frank Dyer broke his own school and BIG EAST meet record in the 500 free by finishing in 4:18.50, defending his title from the 2011 meet and establishing a Trees Pool benchmark. Even more, he was one of five Irish swimmers in the final heat. Brennan Jacobsen (4:24.28) came down the stretch in second with Kevin Hughes (4:24.43) taking fourth. In seventh was John Nappi (4:27.22) and rounding out the top-eight was Jimmy McEldrew (4:30.69).
Breaking through in the 200 individual medley was Bill Bass with a school record in 1:44.81. Bass took the title from three-time defending champion Carlos Almeida of Louisville while breaking the Trees Pool (1:45.71) and BIG EAST (1:45.26) records, both previously held by Almeida.
Bass, who was second in the event in both 2010 and 2011, was joined on the podium by Zachary Stephens (4th – 1:47.71), Colin Babcock (5th – 1:47.77), Cameron Miller (6th – 1:49.10) and Patrick Olson (8th – 1:49.17).
The highest finisher for Notre Dame in the 50 free was Kevin Overholt (20.07) in eighth. However, Overholt was later part of the record-setting 200 free relay squad along with Dyer, Bass and John McGinley that went 1:18.79 to end the evening session.
Dyer jump-started the relay crew with a 19.84 in the first 50 yards to become the fastest swimmer in Notre Dame history, bettering John Lytle’s school record of 20.05 set in the 2009 league meet.
With 406 points, Notre Dame remains in first place as Louisville (330.5) closed the night in the second spot. Pittsburgh (216) is third as West Virginia (186.5) is fourth.
Friday’s preliminaries begin at 10:00 a.m. (ET) with live coverage available at UND.com.
–ND–