Bradford, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford swim teams wrapped up their dual meet schedule on Saturday, as both the men's and women's teams defeated Medaille. The Men won 76-54, while the women defeated the Mavericks 79-42.
During the first intermission, the Panthers took a moment to recognize three graduating players. Connor Weiss is a four-year member of the men's team who has competed in freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, and medley events. Adriana Gallas has been a member of the women's team for four years, competing mostly in distance freestyle, breaststroke, and relay events. Macy Petersen is in her second season as a member of the Panthers and has competed in freestyle and breaststroke events.
The Men's team began the meet with uncontested victories in the 200-yard medley relay and the 1650-yard freestyle. Their next victory came in the 50-free, where Conan Young won the sprint by 1.63 seconds. His time was 24.55. Later on, Conan added another win in the 100-yard backstroke, edging out teammate Sam Wright with a time of 58.85 seconds. Wright finished in 1:00.85. Duncan Young picked up the only other individual win for the Panthers, completing the 500-yard freestyle in 5:19.41.
Celebrating his senior day, Connor Weiss was able to pick up 7 individual points, while also completing a leg of the medley relay. Weiss took 2nd in the 100-yard individual medley, finishing in 1:11.53. He followed that up with a third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:19.84. In the medley relay, Weiss swam the butterfly leg of the race, posting a split of 31.93 seconds.
The Women started off the meet in dominating fashion, as they took the 200-yard medley relay by more than 20 seconds. The relay of Madison Foote, Isabella Cercone, Bailey Fedak, and Adriana Gallas completed the race in 2:16.44. The Panthers were able to win the next three events to jump out to an early lead. Madison Foote and Adriana Gallas both completed the 200-yard freestyle to pick up 13 points. Foote won the race with a time of 2:29.30 and Gallas finished in 2:38.30. They followed up the 200 with another 1st and 2nd place finish in the 50-yard freestyle. Bailey Fedak won the race with a time of 27.71 seconds, while Macy Petersen took 2nd with a time of 32.00 seconds.
The Mavericks were able to pull closer with wins in the 100-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly, but the Panthers regained control shortly afterward with another 1, 2 finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Isabella Cercone won the race with a time of 1:01.84, and Fedak finished just behind her with a time of 1:06.60. The Panthers closed strong as Foote and Gallas completed the 500-yard freestyle and Cercone the 100-yard breaststroke uncontested. Foote won the 500 with a time of 6:36.14, while Gallas finished at 6:58.74. Cercone completed the breaststroke in 1:15.08.
Gallas and Petersen each picked up 8 individual points for the Panthers, both finishing 2nd twice. Gallas was also a member of the medley relay team.
The men's team finish their regular season with a 7-5-1 dual meet record, while the women post a record of 4-10. Both teams will take the next two weeks to recover and prepare for the season-ending Allegheny Empire Swimming Championships. They will take on swimmers from the AMCC as well as the Empire 8 Conference. The Championship will be hosted at the Webster Aquatic Center in Webster, N.Y. beginning on Wednesday, February 15th.
