2017 Women’s ACC Championships: Day 3 Finals Live Recap

2017 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

• Monday, February 13 – Thursday, February 16
• Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Standard Time)
• Prelims 10AM / Finals 6PM
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• List of Events
• Live on ACC Network Extra 6 – 8:30PM

Day Three of the 2017 ACC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships commences tonight in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The NC State women will begin the third finals session with a 67-point lead over second place Virginia. North Carolina sits in third, just a point-and-a-half behind Virginia.

The women’s swimmers will compete tonight in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 freestyle, 100 breast, 100 back, and 400 medley relay. In between the 100 back and 400 medley relay, men’s diving will compete in the 3-meter springboard.

Women’s 400 IM

1. Reka Gyorgy, Virginia Tech, 4:04.97
2. Kaitlyn Jones, Virginia, 4:06.80
3. Hannah Moore, NC State, 4:09.10

Virginia Tech freshman Reka Gyorgy stepped up big for the Hokies in her first conference meet. Through the butterfly leg, Virginia’s defending champion Kaitlyn Jones held the lead, but Gyorgy broke ahead on the backstroke and never looked back, winning in 4:04.97 to Jones’ 4:06.80. Also swimming sub-4:10 was NC State’s Hannah Moore, who picked up bronze in 4:09.10.

Louisville’s Rachel Bradford-Feldman chased down UNC’s Catherine Hulsey with a 27.83 split on the final 50. She clocked in at 4:10.11 to out-touch Hulsey (4:10.16) by 5 hundredths.

Women’s 100 Fly

1. Hellen Moffitt, UNC, 50.86
2. Leah Goldman, Duke, 51.62
3. Erin Sheehan, Notre Dame, 52.22

Women’s 200 Free

1. Mallory Comerford, Louisville, 1:41.70
2. Leah Smith, Virginia, 1:43.29
3. Jessica Hespeler, Virginia Tech, 1:44.37

Mallory Comerford did even the score over Leah Smith after she finished second in the 500 free last night. Comerford’s 1:41.70 beat’s Olympian Lauren Perdue ACC record by eight tenths. What was perhaps most impressive about her swim is that she outsplit distance phenom Leah Smith on the final 50 by almost a full second.

Notably for UVA, who is trying to make up ground on NC State, also finished 5th, 6th, and 7th (with Jennifer Marrkan, Morgan Hill, and Eryn Eddy, respectively).

Women’s 100 Breast

1. Laura Simon, UVA, 58.46
2. Andrea Cottrell, Louisville, 58.81
3. Kayla Brumbaum, NC State, 58.91

The ACC women flexed their muscles in the 100 yard breaststroke, which closed out with three swimmers from three different schools dipping below the 59-second mark. The entire podium was made up of seniors. Virginia senior Laura Simon won the race after shaving off more than a half-second from her prelim swim.

Virginia’s Vivan Tafuto was 4th (59.79) and Florida State’s Natalie Pierce was 5th (59.87), to round out the group of swimmers with sub-minute swims.

Women’s 100 Back

1. Alexia Zevnik, NC State (50.80)
2. Caroline Baldwin, UNC (51.38)
3. Hellen Moffitt, UNC (51.42)

NC State senior Alexia Zevnik picked up her second individual title of the championship meet, finishing just 6 one-hundredths off Courtney Bartholomew’s ACC record. Zevnik was the only swimmer under 51 seconds. She was followed by a pair of Tar Heel upperclassmen in Caroline Baldwin and Hellen Moffitt.

NC State put four swimmers in the final, with sophomore Courtney Caldwell finishing in fourth in 51.75. Elise Haan who had the fastest time coming out of prelims settled for sixth with a 52.18.

Men’s 3-Meter Diving

1. Domin Giordano, Pittsburgh, 451.60
2. Briadam Herrera, Miami, 428.70
3. John Nyquist, UNC, 407.10

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

1. NC State, 3:28.26
2. Louisville, 3:30.45
3. UVA, 3:31.42

NC State put together four superb legs to come away with the 400 medley relay title by more than two seconds. They were just one hundredth of a second away from tying the ACC Championship meet record. Alexia Zevnik again swam a sub-51 second 100 back, just minutes after coming away with the individual title in that discipline.

Louisville took second thanks, in part, to a 46.71 100 freestyle leg from Mallory Comerford. UNC struggled on the breaststroke leg, but had the fastest 100 fly leg in the field with Hellen Moffitt (51.01), and away with a 4th place finish.

Day Three Standings:

  1. North Carolina State University 776.5    2. Virginia, University of           750
  3. Louisville, University of       674.5    4. North Carolina, University of,    665
  5. Duke University                 513.5    6. VA Tech                           485
  7. Florida State University        457.5    8. Notre Dame, University of       428.5
  9. University of Miami (Florida)   294.5   10. Pittsburgh, University of         294
 11. Georgia Institute of Technology   256   12. Boston College                    122
 13. Clemson University Diving Team    73