- Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM
- Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Virginia (6x) (results)
- Live Results: Available here
- Live Video (If available): Available here (Thurs – Sat only)
- Championship Central
Coming off a record-setting evening last night, Virginia came back this morning with a strong morning session to set themselves up to take control of the meet after tonight’s final session. Virginia put five swimmers in the A-final of the 500 free and up in the 200 IM to give the Cavaliers a conference-leading nine A-finalists heading into the evening. Meanwhile, in the 50 free, NC State continue to show their overall improvement as a program with four A-finalists in the 50 free (and nearly five, but FSU’s Kaitlyn Dressel topped Lotta Nevalainen in a swim-off).
There weren’t many surprises in the top two seeds of each event: Leah Smith of UVA and Stephanie Peacock of North Carolina are sitting 1-2 in the 500, while Emma Reaney and Ellen Williamson will be in the middle of the pool in the 200 IM. Tiffany Oliver, the top qualifier in the psych sheet, is tied for first with Hannah Lincoln of UNC, who had the fastest anchor leg in last night’s 200 medley relay.
Reminder: ACC women scores to 24 places!
500 Free
Just like they did through the final years of Mark Bernardino’s coaching career, Virginia thoroughly dominated this event, putting five swimmers in the A-final. In addition to Smith, the top seed (4:37.41), Virginia also claimed places 5-8, with Hannah Borgersen, Alison Haulsee, Kelly Offutt, and Caroline Kenney rounding out the heat.
As we mentioned above, Smith and Peacock (4:39.20) were the two fastest swimmers overall. Both women are already safely into NCAA’s with individual ‘A’ cuts in the event earlier this season. UNC junior Danielle Siverling, fresh off her team record in the 200 free last night, cut seven seconds off of her seed time to finish third in 4:40.29, and Florida State sophomore Madison Jacobi, who was leading the field through 300 yards, cruised through the final 200 to touch fourth in 4:40.52.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 5 up
UNC: 2 up/2 mid
FSU: 1 up/1 mid
NC State: 2 mid
200 IM
Emma Reaney, the conference record holder in this event with her 1:55.18 from this winter, did what she does best, pushing through a fast breaststroke leg to take the top seed in 1:56.36. Expect Reaney to take down Megan Evo’s ACC Meet record of 1:56.17 tonight. Ellen Williamson, the second overall seed coming into the meet, was the quickest of the four Cavaliers/Wahoos to make the big final tonight with her 1:57.47. She will be joined tonight be teammates Shaun Casey (4th, 1:57.86), Haley Durmer (6th, 1:58.13), and Kaitlyn Jones (7th, 1:58.22).
Notably, backstroke star Courtney Bartholomew narrowly missed out on the championship heat, adding two seconds to her seed time to finish ninth in 1:59.23. While UVA would love to have all the points they can get, overall, it’s a good sign for their NCAA prospects to not see Bartholomew, a potential NCAA champion backstroker, at her best right now.
North Carolina (Cari Blalock, 3rd, 1:57.79), Florida State (McKayla Lightbourn, 5th, 1:58.11), and Virginia Tech (Holly Harper, 8th, 1:58.99, cutting three seconds off her personal best) are also represented in the A-final.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 4 up/2 mid/1 down
UNC: 1 up/1 mid/1 down
FSU: 1 up/1 down
NC State: 2 mid/1 down
50 Free
Three new school records amongst the top seeds highlighted the final swim event of the morning session. Hannah Lincoln of UNC and Tiffany Olivier of Florida State finished in a dead heat at 22.17 this morning, altering the record books in the process. Lincoln topped Rebecca Kane’s school standard of 22.21 from 2011, while Oliver tied her own mark from a year ago. Look for her to make a run at breaking it outright tonight. Riki Bonnema, the third place qualifier, finished just behind in 22.22, lowering the previous NC State team record.
Bonnema was one of five (yes, five) Wolfpack team members to finish in the top nine:
Bonnema: 3rd, 22.22
Natalie Labonge: 5th, 22.44
Ashlyn Koletic: 6th, 22.46
Lauren Poli: 7th, 22.48
Lotta Nevalainen, T-8th, 22.51 (Nevalainen later was touched out by Kaitlyn Dressel, 22.27-22.28, in a swimoff)
Lauren Weaver of Duke was just off her team record in a fourth place effort of 22.35. Virginia missed out on the A-final, but managed to put three swimmers in the B-final.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 3 mid/1 down
UNC: 1 up/2 mid/1 down
FSU: 2 up/1 down
NC State: 4 up/2 mid
Overall Up/Down:
UVA: 9 up/5 mid/2 down
UNC: 4 up/5 mid/2 down
FSU: 4 up/1 mid/2 down
NC State: 4 up/6 mid/1 down
Let’s go Madison Jacobi!
The diving will be interesting – UVA (2), UNC (2), and NCSU (0) have only 4 divers competing among them, while Clemson has 8, FSU. Notre dame, Miami each have 4, and Va tech has 5 – so the diving points will serve to bring these other teams more into the team mix with 24 place scoring. In duel meets, VT placed at least 4 divers ahead of all UVA and UNC divers, – Look for VT and FSU to each gain close to 100 points on UVA, NCSU and UNC each day in diving.
UVa just dropped the hammer in that session. The delta between them and second place is going to be wider than anyone would have guessed going into this meet…even factoring in getting blasted in the diving points as you had noted.