In their final home tuneup before the ACC tournament, the No. 9 Virginia men and No. 18 Virginia women's swimming and diving teams cruised to easy victories against the Pittsburgh Panthers.
The men (9-1 overall, 5-0 ACC) beat the 16th ranked Panthers (9-2), 128-108, in a meet that wasn't as close the score indicates. The men had the top times in all of the swimming events and swept the 1,000-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly.
The Virginia women (6-3 overall, 4-1 ACC) also dominated Pittsburgh (6-5), coasting to a 131-102 victory. Sweeps for the women included the 1,000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly.
"As a whole, we had a solid meet," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "We didn't swim with as much emotion as I would like to have seen in the second half of the meet. We got out to a big lead, and I think in order to maintain the emotional intensity sometimes you need to be in a tighter meet."
In the seniors' last chance to shine in a home meet, they ended on high note by winning seven individual races. Senior captain Luke Wagner led the way with three first-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.25), the 200-yard backstroke (1:45.84) and the 400-yard medley relay (3:18.43).
"I think the team swam really well," Wagner said. "We had a pretty tough meet last weekend, so it's always hard to come back the next week and get up. But everybody swam really well. It was a real good week, especially leading up to ACC's."
Senior captain Amy Baly won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 4.76 seconds and had the top time of 2 minutes, 22.93 seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke.
"We haven't had much rest or anything," Baly said. "They came in here and they swam fast, but I think we're a better team all around. We're just looking forward to getting a little bit of rest and we can really do some good things."
Freshman Kimi Kelly continued her strong swimming with a victory in the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.63) and a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle behind junior Laura Lipskis.
One advantage for both Virginia teams was the week of rest since last weekend's meet. The Panthers swam last night at Virginia Tech in an emotional come-from-behind victory for the men, while the women lost to the Hokies.
Virginia, however, was hobbled by the absence of top female diver and captain Katie Prior, who missed the meet due to illness. Also not present was junior diver and captain Pete Amstutz, who missed the meet because of an injury suffered in practice this week.
Despite the men and women's teams' immense success this season, the team hopes this is just the beginning of what's to come.
"I think we know the task that's in front of us," Bernardino said. "I think we know what we want to achieve. I don't think anybody that swims on this team is satisfied. I don't think anybody coaching this team is satisfied."
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