Sports@DominionPost.com
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia swim and dive split with Pittsburgh in the 2020 installment of the Backyard Brawl at the Mylan Aquatics Center, with the men coming out victorious.
The men’s team (1-1) topped Pitt 179.5-120.5 while the women (0-2) fell 175-125.
The women’s loss wasn’t without plenty of victories though, as senior Morgan Bullock won three individual events: The 100- and 200-yard butterflies with times of 55.46 and 2:01.60, respectively, as well as the 200-IM (2:06.03).
Emily Haimes picked up back-to-back wins in the 50 and 100 freestyles, clocking 23.60 and 51.39, respectively. Mathilde Kaelbel was the next to take top marks in an event, winning the 200 breast at 2:22.22. Haimes, Emma Bliss, Julia Nilton and Giselle Gursoy were the final ones to take a top placement, winning the 200 free relay (1:35.55).
The men were paced by junior David Dixon who won the same individual events as Bullock, logging 47.55 in the 100 fly, 1:46.20 in the 200 fly and 1:48.24 in the 200 IM. Dixon also tacked on a win in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:28.24 along with teammates Angelo Russo, Fausto Huerta and Hunter Armstrong. In total, the men won nine events.
Armstrong took 1st in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:39.83. Huerta logged two first-place finishes in the 100 backstroke (48.31) and the 100 breaststroke (55.56). Russo was the final swimmmer to win an individual race, picking up a victory in the 200 back (1:48.69). To close, the men tied for 1st with Pitt in the 200 free relay at 1:21.76.
“Today’s performance was really good for both teams,” WVU coach Vic Riggs said. “Our women’s team has some challenges ahead of them with some injuries, but for us to score 125 points today was great and more than we scored in this meet last year. For the men, from the beginning to the end, it was a really good meet. Everybody swam very well. The divers came through huge for us on the boards, and it was just a very solid day.”
In men’s diving, P.J. Lenz won big taking 1st place in the 1- and 3-meter competitions with scores of 318.82 and 316.72, respectively. Both of his scores were NCAA Zones-qualifiers. For the women, Camille Burt won 2nd in the 1-meter — a NCAA Zones-qualifying score of 279.37 — and 3rd in the 3-meter competition.
West Virginia returns to action later this month in Texas for two different duals: The men first take on SMU at 6 p.m. on Jan. 17 in Dallas, and the women finish the trip squaring off against TCU at 11 a.m. on Jan. 18 in Fort Worth.
TWEET @dompostsports
