Notre Dame Men 169, Texas A&M 129

It was a solid 2006-07 dual meet debut for the No. 17 Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team on Saturday as the Irish defeated Texas A&M 169-129 in the Student Recreation Natatorium. Sophomores Jeff Wood (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) and Sam Pendergast (Melbourne, Australia) both collected two wins apiece in their Fighting Irish debuts. Wood, a transfer from Indiana, won both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, while Pendergast, who did not compete during his freshman season, notched victories in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

"Overall, I was happy with our times and the way we competed," head swim coach Jay Holmes said. "I was very disappointed that we lost and the final score. This showed us a lot of things that we need to work on.

"I thought James Hard did a very good job today. He made a small mistake in the 1,000 and he ended up losing the race, but he corrected it in the 500 and won. He took off at the 350 yard mark and took the Notre Dame swimmer out of the race.

"Israel (Duran) was behind in his race until about seven yards left. He just kept charging and charging and was able to out-touch the Notre Dame swimmer. He's really good and he's going to help us a bunch.

"I'm really pleased with the way Alejandro (Jacobo) is swimming. I know he was disappointed that he didn't get the win in the breaststrokes, but he did a great job in the IM. He's much further along than he's ever been at this point in the season.

"We didn't even know if Francisco (Picasso) was going to be able to swim today. He woke up with some sort of a sickness, but came through because we needed him to."

Wood and Pendergast were also part of the winning 200-yard medley relay team for the Irish, who captured nine of 16 events on the afternoon. Joining them on the winning relay quartet were seniors Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) and Louis Cavadini (South Bend, Ind./Riley). Kegelman added to his victory total by winning the 100-yard butterfly.

Also claiming titles for the Irish were junior Jay Vanden Berg (Holland, Mich./Southfield Christian School) in the 1,000-yard free, senior Ted Brown (Kokomo, Ind./Western) in the 200-yard free and freshman John Lytle (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area) in the 100 free. The Irish took three of the five scoring spots in 12 of 14 non-relay events.

“What an exciting season debut for Notre Dame swimming,” stated Irish head coach Tim Welsh following the meet. “We had great performances across the board from the freshman class to the senior class. We had good competitiveness and showed a lot of guts in winning close races. Overall, it was a very, very strong meet for us.”