Pirates Head To Indianapolis For Swimming And Diving Championships

Wednesday, February 27

Indianapolis, In

6 PM

East Carolina University

The American Championships

Photo by: Abbey Mercando

Pirates Head To Indianapolis For Swimming And Diving Championships

February 26, 2019 | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming & Diving

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The ECU swimming and diving teams will compete in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Championships at the IUPUI Natatorium from Feb. 27 – March 2.

The four-day American Swimming and Diving Championships will begin on Wednesday with the men's and women's 800 freestyle and 200 medley relays as well as the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter diving competitions beginning at 5 p.m.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, preliminary heats for all swimming events will begin at 10 a.m. with event finals starting Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m.

The ECU men won three consecutive league championships (2015, '16, and '17) to begin their conference tenure before finishing second to Cincinnati last season.

The Pirates have seven all-conference performers returning. Their entrants include two-time defending 100 butterfly champion Gustavo Santos, as well as the 2018 100 and 200 breaststroke champion Jacek Arentewicz. The Pirates captured four American relay titles in 2018 and concluded the regular season with a dual-meet record of 4-2 — capping their 36th straight season finishing at .500 or above.

Santos owns the top time in the event this year (46.19 seconds), recording his mark at the Georgia Tech Invitational.

The ECU men hold seven top marks in 2019 heading into this year's championship.

The Pirates also have the most B qualifying times among the conference this season with six led by Arentewicz and Lyubomir Epitropov, who each swam the fastest 100 and 200 breaststroke times in The American. Arentewicz, a two-time American champion, swam B-Cut times of 53.52 seconds in the 100 breast and 1:55.57 in the 200 breast to lead the conference.

Epitropov's pair of B-Cut marks each came at the Janis Hape Dowd Nike Invitational. He logged 54.09 seconds in the 100 breast and 1:58.02 in the 200 breast for the second-best marks in the league.

ECU's Devin Nugent and Luke Stivers have met the NCAA 1-meter Zone Diving standards with scores better than 300 this year for the second and third-best 1-meter dives in the conference, respectively.

Stivers owns the top 3-meter dive in The American this year with his score of 341.33 against South Carolina. He is the only male diver to meet this year's NCAA 3-meter Zone Diving standards. Nugent has the second-best 3-meter dive in the league.

On the women's side, the Pirates posted their 27th-consecutive winning campaign with a 4-3 dual meet record. Catherine Johnson and Stefanie Scherwitzel each posted top-three finishes at the 2018 conference championship for the Pirates.

Lily West swam the 200 breaststroke in 2:13.14 at the Georgia Tech Invitational for the Pirates' only B-Cut time to enter the conference meet.