Numbers never lie. But sometimes they tell only part of the story.

The Syracuse swimming and diving teams competed Saturday against powerful Pittsburgh at Webster Pool. The SU women’s team dropped the dual meet, 140.5-95.5, while the men fell to the seven-time defending Big East champions, 165-78.

The lopsided scores aside, both Syracuse teams could take several positive components out of Saturday’s competition.

‘Time-wise, I am pleased,’ head coach Lou Walker said. ‘And the way we are racing, I am exceptionally pleased.’

For good reason. Elyse McDonough continued to shine for the Orangewomen (1-2), setting yet another record in her final season. McDonough, who won the 200-yard butterfly at 2:04.97, set a Webster Pool record with her first place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, swimming it in 2:05.10. McDonough slipped into the record books by shaving half a second off the previous record, set in 2001.

For the Orangemen (2-1), SU freshman Luk Boral finished first twice. Boral was the only Orangeman to beat the Panthers in a non-relay event. He did so in impressive fashion by winning the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:03.84, eclipsing the previous pool record by nearly two seconds.

‘Luk is everything we anticipated,’ Walker said. ‘He is the real deal.’

Boral also swam on Syracuse’s first-place 400-yard medley relay team, which finished in 3:26.15. The other three members of the winning quartet were sophomore Bobby Schelling, junior Mike Anstrom and senior Raymond Spencer. Boral also swam in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing second.

‘I improved in all three events,’ said Boral, a Poland native, ‘I am still improving my turns and some of my dynamics, but I feel good about my times.’

Senior Kalei Mahi also performed well for the Orangewomen, winning the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:22.98.

In perhaps the most exciting event of the day, Vanessa Martinez tied for first in the 100-yard freestyle. The junior chased Pitt’s Jenny Livingstone as the two turned for the final length. Martinez made up the distance and the two swimmers checked in with equal times of 53.35 seconds.

Walker was pleased with Martinez’s late surge and more importantly the way she raced.

‘Coming in here we knew we were underdogs,’ Walker said. ‘So I look for two things: how we race against the clock and how well we swim the race.’

Published on November 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm