Jan. 26, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Six individual wins, including Michael Bulfin’s record-breaking performance off the 3-meter board, highlighted a Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team win over West Virginia Saturday at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.
The 214-150 win in the Shamrock Dual Meet Invitational moved the team’s record to 4-6 on the season, as the Irish are now 4-1 all-time against the Mountaineers.
Notre Dame led 79-66 after the morning session.
Bulfin managed to break his own school and pool record in the 3-meter event with a score of 393.37. His previous mark was set last week against Louisville.
“This was a grand finale in every way,” said Irish head coach Tim Welsh. “It was the final home meet of the season and the last one for our seniors. It turned out to be a whole lot of swimming in one day. The times were good, the spirits were good, and the energy was good. We were focused on our dives and got the times we needed to get in order to win. Overall, it was a successful meet for us. It was a good way to wrap up the regular season.”
Next on the schedule for the Irish is the BIG EAST Conference Championship. The meet will be held in East Meadow, N.Y. from Feb. 20-23. Notre Dame has registered 10 consecutive top-four finishes in the BIG EAST finale, including a runner-up finish in 2007. The squad racked the league title in 2005 and 2006.
200 Medley Relay: The Irish mustered up a second-place finish in 1:34.48 … the crew consisted of Andrew MacKay, Sam Pendergast, Ross Moore, and Danny Lutkus.
400 Individual Medley: Behind WVU’s Michael Walker were Andrew Deters (4:02.11), MacKenzie LeBlanc (4:04.84), Michael Sullivan (4:06.41), and Christopher Douville (4:07.76).
100 Fly: Second-place went the way of Moore (51.28) … Andrew Hoffman (52.26) was next in line … close behind were Thomas Van Volkenburg (52.29), MacKay (52.98), and Mitchell Sherman (54.94).
200 Free: Top nods went to John Lytle (1:41.00) … Patrick Lloyd (1:43.30), Rob Seery (1:44.63), Robert Kingery (1:44.71), Steven Brus (1:44.76), and Joseph Deters (1:45.51) secured the sweep for the Irish.
100 Breast: Pendergast cut through in 57.25 for the silver … Daniel Rave got in the scoring column by tapping in at 1:00.30.
100 Back: Bill Bauman muscled his way to a second-place finish in the final standings … he locked in a time of 51.57 … Sullivan (53.33) and Joshua Nosal (53.50) placed behind him.
800 Free Relay: Notre Dame dominated the event with a pair of top finishes … the two squads notched respective times of 6:51.31 and 7:04.13.
1,650 Free: Andrew Deters paced his way to a meet-best 15:57.12 … teammate Rob Seery was in pursuit with a showing of 16:32.59.
200 Free Relay: Lytle, Hoffman, Van Volkenburg, and Pendergast led the field for first … they touched base in 1:24.38.
200 Back: Sullivan (1:51.89) tapped in for second … he was trailed by Wills (1:53.13) and Douville (1:53.97).
100 Free: Lytle (45.73) was edged out after going stroke-for-stroke with WVU’s Nikola Delic (45.70) … Lloyd (46.85) and David Anderson (47.03) lagged just behind the top two.
200 Breast: Scoring points for Notre Dame were Rave (2:05.31), Pendergast (2:06.66), and Joseph Raycroft (2:08.78).
200 Fly: It was all Irish in this event, led by Moore streaking to a 1:50.19 first-place finish … LeBlanc (1:54.56), Deters (1:55.99), and MacKay (2:12.78) rounded out the pack.
400 Medley Relay: Second- and third-place finishes were collected by Notre Dame with times of 3:27.56 and 3:31.62.
500 Free: Deters went home with his second win by coming in with a time of 4:39.42 … Sullivan was second in 4:42.24.
200 Individual Medley: Behind a pair of Mountaineers, Notre Dame was able to score with efforts from Raycroft (1:57.33), Hoffman (1:58.11), and Douville (1:58.48).
50 Free: Anderson blitzed through for second in 21.17 … Lytle (21.22) was third in the sprint.
400 Free Relay: Gold and silver honors stayed with the home team with times of 3:06.80 and 3:07.66.
3-meter Diving: Bulfin (393.97) leaped away with the win … Sam Stoner (366.15) and Wesley Villaflor (343.88) represented the crew with the event’s three highest scores.
1-meter Diving: Bulfin (361.65), Stoner (328.50), and Crowe (290.40) held it down for the home team by claiming the first three spots.
–ND–