Xavier Swimming Sweeps Conference Weekly Awards

NEW YORK - After helping post six new school records at CSU Magnus Cup over the weekend, Xavier Swimming swept the conference weekly awards with Michael Pettinichi and Caroline Gaertner earning BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week honors, the conference office announced on Tuesday.

PETTINICHI'S FIRST

Michael Pettinichi, the reigning BIG EAST Champion in the 100 breast and 200 breast, posted the top two times in the conference this season at the CSU Magnus Cup over the weekend. Pettinichi placed third in the 100 breast with a time of 55.45, just .06 off the NCAA B-Cut standard of 55.39.

Pettinichi then posted the top overall time in the 200 breast, 2:01.15, while competing in the B-Final, a mark that broke his own school record set at last year's BIG EAST Championship.

Pettinichi also finished second in the meet in the 50 breast with a time of 25.66.

The sophomore was also part of a pair of relays that set the top times among BIG EAST competitors over the weekend, the 200 free relay which finished in 1:22.86 and the 200 medley relay that finished in 1:29.92, both of which finished second only to host Cleveland State.

This is the first weekly honor of Pettinichi's Xavier career.

GAERTNER SETS NCAA B-CUT TIME

Gaertner came away from the CSU Magnus Cup with a hand in five new school records. In the 100 back, the sophomore became only the second Xavier women's swimmer in program history to post an NCAA B-Cut time with her time of 55.00 in the 100 back, setting a new school record and the top time in the conference this year. She joins junior Paxtyn Drew, who set a pair of B-Cut times at the 2016 BIG EAST Championships.

The Mendota Heights, Minn. native also set a new high mark in program history in the 50 free, touching the wall in 23.32 to take third.

In the preliminaries of the 100 fly, Gaertner's time of 54.55 broke her own school record time of 54.90. It also stands as the top time in the BIG EAST this season. She finished third in the finals with time of 54.61.

Individually, Gaertner also finished second in the 50 fly with a time of 25.01 and third in the 200 back with a time of 2:00.56.

Gaertner helped the Musketeers set a pair of relay records as a well. The sophomore took the anchor leg of the 200 free relay that placed second with a school record time of 1:33.17. Additionally, Gaertner took the fly leg of the 400 medley relay that set a new school-best mark of 3:47.32.

Gaertner also swam the fly leg for the 200 medley relay that set the top time in the BIG EAST this year at 1:42.72.

This is the second weekly award for Gaernter.

BIG EAST WEEKLY HONOREES

This is the second time this season the Musketeers have swept the BIG EAST Weekly Awards, with Gaertner and Rodrigo Suriano taking the honors for the week of Nov. 1.

Gaertner's honor is the third on the women's side, having earned a pair herself along with an honor for Emily Conners in week one.

Pettinichi's honor is also the third for the men's side. Suriano has earned a pair so far this season.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Selected qualifiers will compete in the AT&T Winter Nationals in Atlanta, Ga. from Dec. 1-3. The entire squad will next be in action on Jan. 6, 2017, when Xavier travels to Indianapolis to face IUPUI.

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