Pitt, Led By Sixth-Place Women, Assemble Historic ACC Championships
They weren’t among the headliners at the ACC Championships, but Pitt’s swim team had one of the most impressive weeks at the meet in Georgia Tech.
Claire Jansen’s medal in the women’s 200 backstroke on Saturday was the first for a Pittsburgh women’s swimmer in a decade and just the third ever. Julian Koch picked up the men’s program’s sixth ever medal at ACCs in the 100 butterfly.
Pitt set 19 program records, including all five on the men’s relays. The sixth-place finish on the women’s side is the best in program history.
Two days into the meet, Pitt had matched its total of NCAA A cuts from the previous 20 years. Pitt had put a relay at NCAAs just three times since 2006 – the men’s 200 medley relay in 2021, the women’s 200 medley relay in 2024 and the women’s 400 free relay in 2025.
The men’s 200 medley relay (Mason Leach, Eli Hobson, Koch, Donat Fabian) took down the school record at 1:22.57 to finish fourth, a time that would’ve been 10th at NCAAs last year. The guys in the 800 free relay – Koch, James Allison, Patrizio Costanza and Alan Vergine – went 6:14.13 for an A cut and a school record, with Koch’s 1:32.79 off the front a program mark in the 200 free. They would add an NCAA cut in the 400 free relay on the final day.
The women got an A cut with the 800 free relay of Avery Kudlac, Sydney Gring, Mary Clarke and Jansen in an A cut of 7:00.42 that finished sixth. The 400 free relay (Kudlac, Jasen, Gring and Clarke) hit the A standard in 3:13.41; it had been 3:12.88 this season. They added a provisional cut in the 200 free relay.
Pitt also scored a provisional time in the 400 medley real (Leach, Hobson, Vergine, Koch), and the Panthers time-trialed after a disappointing eighth in the 200 free relay to get a provisional cut with Koch (18.91), Fabian, Evan Witte and Merlin Belmon. That was a school record 1:16.73.
Perhaps most indicative was the 400 free relay of Koch, Belmon, Allison and Vergine. They went 2:47.68 to set the program record. The old mark of 2:51.26 was set at NCAAs last year.
Koch became the first Pitt man to break 19 seconds in the 50 free, finishing ninth in 18.87. He set the program mark in the 100 fly in 44.56, a program record and just the fourth man/fifth medal on the men’s side in ACC competition in third. He was fourth in the 100 free and lowered his program mark to 41.00 off the front of the relay.
Jansen also finished fourth in the 100 back in 50.32, lowering her program record. Gring finished sixth in the 200 individual medley, with a pair of program records, the last 1:55.26.
