East Carolina Men's Swimming wins third consecutive AAC Championship

HOUSTON – East Carolina won its third consecutive American Athletic Conference Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship Saturday night at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston. The Pirates finished the meet with 840 points followed by SMU with 713.5 points. Cincinnati was third with 678.0 points, while UConn placed fourth.

ECU Head Coach Rick Kobe, who is retiring after this season, was named The American Men’s Coach-of-the-Year for the third consecutive year.

Junior John Myhre captured his third individual gold medal of the championships with a time of 44.00 in the 100-yard freestyle, which ranks as the third-fastest time in program history. Myhre also collected gold in the 50 and 200-yard freestyle races earlier in the week.

Sophomore Maxime Cadiat claimed third-place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.61 for his first conference championship medal.

Freshman Blaz Demsar won the silver medal in the 200-yard butterfly, as did senior Erle Craven in the 200-yard breaststroke; it was the second individual medal of the meet for each. Senior Fran Krznaric took third in the 200-yard backstroke to earn his third medal of the meet.

The Pirates concluded the meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay with Myhre swimming the anchor leg to secure the title.

On the ladies side, ECU junior Vendela Normann repeated as conference champion in the 200-yard breaststroke with a varsity record time of 2:10.28, winning by 2.12 seconds.

Senior Marion Abert claimed her second silver medal of 2017 with a runner-up finish in the 1650-yard freestyle with a varsity record time of 16:25.33.

Junior Julie Lajoie, who finished third in the 400-yard IM Friday, captured her second bronze medal of the meet by finishing third in 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:59.56.

Houston won the women’s team title with 772 points. SMU placed second with 676 points followed by Cincinnati (625), East Carolina (473), UConn (460) and Tulane (395).