- 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
Through 2+ days of competition, the Virginia Cavaliers are well on their way to their seventh straight ACC championship, with a 150-point margin and another strong performance on Friday morning. Ellen Williamson (100 fly) and Courtney Bartholomew (100 back) earned top seeds in their respective events, but their closest competitors and rivals North Carolina, Florida State, and NC State also had excellent mornings.
400 IM
North Carolina took two of the top three seeds in the A-final, led by defending ACC champion Cari Blalock in a season-best effort of 4:09.91. She’s joined by sophomore teammate Emma Nunn in third place in 4:11.89. Shaun Casey of Virginia cruised through the final 100 yards to split the two Tar Heels, touching in 4:10.71. Another Cavalier, Haley Durmer, made it into the A-final, touching in 4:14.09.
Notre Dame (freshman Katie Miller, 4th, 4:12.08), Florida State (Julia Henkel, 6th, 4:14.18), Virginia Tech (freshmman Fiona Donnelly, T-7th, 4:14.96), and Pitt (Tatyanna Sarjeant, T-7th, 4:14.96)
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 2 up
UNC: 2 up/2 mid/1 down
FSU: 1 up
NC State: 2 mid/1 down
100 Fly
UNC put three swimmers in the top 8, but Virginia’s Ellen Williamson, the #1 seed headed into the competition, had the fastest morning swim by nearly a half second, touching in 52.83. The Tar Heels got season best swims from Hellen Moffitt (4th, 53.37), Hannah Lincoln (6th, 53.53), Meredith Hoover (8th, 53.74).
A pair of freshmen, Chelsea Britt of Florida State and Maggie Gruber of Virginia Tech, both swam lifetime bests to finish second and third, clocking in at 53.26 and 53.32, respectively. Duke senior Lauren Weaver and Zina Grogg of NC State rounded out the top eight.
Notably, the #2 and #3 seeds coming into the competition, Sarah Koucheki of UNC and Courtney Whyte of Notre Dame, fell to 17th place (54.21) and 16th place (54.17), respectively.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 1 up/1 mid/1 down
UNC: 3 up/2 down
FSU: 1 up/1 mid
NC State: 1 up/2 mid/1 down
200 Free
This one was all UNC and UVA. The Tar Heels and Cavaliers/Wahoos combined for seven of the top eight swimmers in this event heading into finals, with North Carolina school record holder Danielle Siverling taking the top spot in 1:44.85, narrowly missing her best time of 1:44.72 she swam on the opening night. Teammates Stephanie Peacock (1:45.48, 2nd), Allyn Hardesty (1:46.26, 5th), and Lauren Earp (1:46.37, 6th) swam season best times to grab spots in the A-final.
Virginia nearly matched their arch rivals with three A-finalists of their own, including two swimmers (Caroline Kenney and Leah Smith) from their conference record-setting 800 free relay on opening night. Hanne Borgersen also snuck into the big heat, touching 8th in 1:46.66.
The lone non-Heel/Hoo is Florida State’s Kaitlyn Dressel, who finished 7th in 1:46.48.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 3 up/2 mid/1 down
UNC: 4 up
FSU: 1 up/2 mid/1 down
NC State: 1 mid
100 Breast
Coming back from her record-setting Thursday night, Emma Reaney snuck under her own conference record and the NCAA ‘A’ standard to take the top seed in 59.09. However, that’s still off her team record of 58.84 she set last year when Notre Dame was a member of the Big East. Reaney will look to be the first ACC swimmer under 59 seconds tonight. Reaney’s teammate and training partner Christen McDonough also made the big final, finishing fifth in 1:00.95.
Virginia and Virginia Tech both got two swimmers into the top eight, headlined by Laura Simon of UVA and Weronika Paluszek of Virginia Tech setting new team records. Simon crushed the previous standard of 1:00.45 from Danica Wizniuk with her 59.35. Paluszek, meanwhile, snuck under her own record of 1:00.32 with a 1:00.01. Mackenzie Stewart of Virginia Tech (6th, 1:01.21) and Natalie Martin of Virginia (7th, 1:01.24) were the other two Commonwealth representatives in the field.
Two swimmers from the state of North Carolina rounded out the top eight: Duke team record holder and 2013 ACC runner-up (and SwimSwam contributor!) Chrstine Wixted safely made it through with her 1:00.01, and North Carolina’s Katie Rechsteiner into the heat by 0.03 to finish eight in 1:01.47.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 2 up
UNC: 1 up/2 down
FSU: 2 mid/1 down
NC State: 1 mid
100 Back
Courtney Bartholomew cruised through her morning swim to easily take lane four tonight with a 51.80, but the biggest stories were NC State qualifying second and third behind big seed drops from Alexia Zevnik (52.65, 1.6 second drop) and Zina Grogg (52.98, 1.84 drop), and Florida State getting three swimmers (McKayla Lightbourn, Chelsea Britt, and Bianca Spinazzola) into the A-final.
UNC’s Carly Smith (4th, 53.18) and Charlotte Clarke of Virginia (5th, 53.27) also made the championship heat.
Up/Middle/Down:
UVA: 2 up/2 mid
UNC: 1 up/1 mid/2 down
FSU: 3 mid
NC State: 2 up/2 mid/2 down