2016 ACC Women Day Two Prelims Recap: NC State Steps Up

2016 ACC Women’s Championship

• Tuesday, February 16 – Saturday, February 20
• Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Prelims 10AM / Finals 6PM (Wed-Sat), Tuesday Times Finals 5:30PM (Central Time)
• Defending Champion: Virginia, 8 Consecutive Titles (results)
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Live results
• Live Video (Finals only 6-8pm)
• Fan Guide

The 2016 ACC Women’s Championship had their first preliminary swimming session this morning. The story of the session was NC State, last year’s 5th place team. The Wolfpack put six swimmers in the top eight for tonight’s finals, including the top qualifier in the 200 IM. While that is two fewer than defending champion Virginia, NC State is threatening to upset the in-state balance of power that still favored UNC last year.

Photos are all from this morning’s prelims, courtesy of Tim Binning.

500 Freestyle

Leah Smith broke her own ACC Meet Record in the 500 free in prelims on Thursday. (Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Leah Smith has never lost this event at the ACC Championships, and it doesn’t look like that will change tonight. This morning she had a much faster preliminary swim than she needed, swimming nearly six seconds ahead of her next closest competitor, and came out as an ACC Championship Record. The old mark of 4:34.35 was hers from last season – she also holds the overall NCAA and ACC Records from last year’s NCAA Championship meet, implying that she should have more to drop still for finals.

This is traditionally a good event for the Cavaliers- last year they had four in the top eight. This year, it was only three. Louisville and NC State made it two apiece, with UNC rounding out the final. Both NC State swimmers, Hannah Moore (4:38.02) and Rachel Muller (4:39.61), improved more than ten seconds off of seed to make the A-Final. Muller was a B-finalist last year, while sophomore Moore was competing for Michigan a year ago.

Top eight for tonight’s finals:

1. Leah Smith, UVA – 4:32.51
2. Hannah Moore, NC State – 4:38.02
3. Hanne Borgersen, UVA – 4:38.72
4. Rachel Muller, NC State – 4:39.61
5. Mallory Comerford, Louisville – 4:42.87
6. Andrea Kneppers, Louisville – 4:43.24
7. Emma Nunn, UNC – 4:43.31
8. Cece Williams, UVA – 4:43.36

200 IM

NC State’s Alexa Zevnik, the top qualifier into finals of the women’s 200 IM. (Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Alexia Zevnik of NC State, last year’s 5th place finisher, now finds herself in the top position heading into tonight’s finals. However sitting right behind her is the top returner in this event, Virginia’s Kaitlyn Jones. Notably Zevnik’s backstroke split was nearly identical to UVA’s Courtney Bartholomew, who slotted in at 4th.

This will also be a good scoring event for Louisville, who got two in the top eight. The two Louisville swimmers had the fastest breaststroke splits of the entire field.

Top eight for tonight’s finals:

1. Alexia Zevnik, NC State – 1:57.16
2. Kaitlyn Jones, UVA – 1:57.58
3. Rachel Bradford, Louisville – 1:57.66
4. Courtney Bartholomew, UVA – 1:57.72
5. Jen Markkand, UVA – 1:57.96
6. Andrea Cottrell, Louisville – 1:58.56
7. Haley Durmer, UVA – 1:58.71
8. Leah Goldman, Duke – 1:59.41

50 Freestyle:

Kelsi Worrell, the top qualifier into finals of the women’s 50 free. (Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Kelsi Worrell of Louisville and Riki Bonnema of NC State didn’t have a particularly close race a year ago. Bonnema won easily after setting the ACC meet record in the preliminaries, and this was the only individual ACC race that Worrell didn’t win. Worrell, however, would go on to set the league record the next month at the NCAA Championships.

Worrell touched first this morning, the only swimmer under 22 seconds, followed by Bonnema. NC State will pile up the points in this race, they got nice boosts from Ashlyn Koletic and Natalie Labonge. Both were consolation finalists last year but found their way into the top eight this time around

Top eight for tonight’s finals:

1. Kelsie Worrell, Louisville – 21.93
2. Riki Bonnema, NC State – 22.02
3. Ashlyn Koletic, NC State – 22.21
4. Caroline Baldwin, UNC – 22.24
5. Natalie Labonge, NC State – 22.29
6. Ellen Thomas, UVA – 22.33
7. Caitlin Cooper, UVA – 22.41
8. Maddie Hess, Duke – 22.44