Nov. 12, 2001

PITTSBURGH-In a closely-contested meet, the No. 18 Pittsburgh men's swimming and diving team edged Big East rival Rutgers, 152-148, at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center in Piscataway, N.J., on Friday evening.

The Panthers won only seven of the 16 events, but garnered enough second and third-place finishes to push their record to 3-0 for the season and 2-0 in the Big East.

Coming into the meet, Pittsburgh only lost one of 38 events, but the Scarlet Knights took the first event, the 200 medley relay. The Panthers came right back with three consecutive victories in the 1000 and 200 freestyle as well as the 100 backstroke to grab an early lead.

Eric Limkemann (New Haven, Ind./Woodlan) scored a big victory in the 1000 free with a time of 9:27.68, more than 21 seconds faster than second-place finisher Hannes Kohnke (Malmo, Sweden/Borgarskolan).

The 200 free was won by Max von Bodungen (Malmo, Sweden/Borgarskolan) in 1:40.62, and the senior Steve Siler (Chicago, Ill./Westmont) took first place in the 100 back with a time of 50.07.

The Scarlet Knights then stormed back with five consecutive event victories, but the Panthers remained close with numerous second and third place finishes. Siler ended Rutgers' streak of wins in the 200 back with a time of 1:47.75, just over a second faster than the Scarlet Knights' Brendan Laracy.

After another win by Rutgers, Pittsburgh took the next three events and held on over the final two to pick up the meet victory. Limkemann, Miah Heath (Estes Park, Colo./Estes Park) and diver Michael Wells (Downington, Pa./Downington) picked up wins in the 500 free, 100 fly and 3-meter diving, respectively.

The Panthers will host Miami (Fla.), Missouri and Ohio State in this weekend's Pittsburgh Invitational (Nov. 16-18) at Trees Pool.