Virginia Tech is hosting William & Mary, UConn, Liberty University, Ohio University and University of South Carolina through Saturday night. The meet is following an NCAA format, with relays swum as timed finals, and top 24 swimmers making it back each night. Here’s a recap of night number one from the Christianburg Aquatic Center.
200yd. Freestyle Relay
Women
William and Mary’s team of Megan Howard, Jaimie Miller, Noelle Klockner and Greta Schneider took the event in a time of 1:32.19. Howard lead off with a 22.60, and Miller followed her with a 22.78 relay split.
Virginia Tech was second in 1:32.42, with Katarina Filova split 22.85 and Holly Harper anchored in 22.81. The B relay from VT finished third in 1:33.40.
Men
Virginia Tech just missed the B standard of 1:18.83 when they finished in 1:18.90 for first. CJ Fiala, Joe Bonk, Morgan Latimer and Emmett Dignan teamed up to top the field by nearly three seconds. The split the race 20.16, 19.46, 19.41 and 19.87.
The VT B team was second in 1:21.32, with Kevin Hunt splitting a 19.93 on the second leg.
South Carolina was third in a time of 1:22.36.
500yd. Freestyle
Women
Freshman Jessie Hespeler topped the event in a time of 4:49.91, just off her prelims time of 4:49.79. She had a good race from South Carolina’s junior Victoria Mitchell at 4:50.08. Hespeler had a lead at the start but Mitchell began to reel her in towards the end of the race, but it wasn’t enough to keep her off in the last 50.
Rachel Sepanski, a senior from VT, rounded out the top three with a time of 4:54.83.
Men
Two South Carolina seniors registered NCAA B standards in the 500 freestyle tonight. Michael Flach won the event in a time of 4:21.38, with his classmate Gera Rodriguez in second at 4:23.92.
UConn had a top three finish from freshman Christopher Girg in 4:25.64, passing Jake Ores from VT in the final 50. Ores finished in 4:25.88.
200yd. IM
Women
Freshman Fiona Donnelly won the event for Virginia Tech. She had a great split at the 100, hitting the wall at 55.52, but finished at 2:00.91 – which is an NCAA B standard. Though, her 36.83 50 breaststroke split hurt her considerably, and if she can improve that just a little, this could be a great event for Donnelly.
Her teammate Weron Paluszek was second in 2:01.16, also an NCAA B standard. Paluszek was three seconds behind Donnelly, but she split 32.91 on the breaststroke, and took the lead into the final 50. But Donnelly outsplit her 28.56 to her 29.66 on the final 50.
South Carolina’s Abby Galbreath was third in 2:02.40.
Men
Another strong freshman showing from the Hokies was Jan Switkowski here in the 200 IM, registering an NCAA B standard and a win in a time of 1:45.95. Sophomore Lucas Bureau was second in 1:49.47.
Jared Kauffman was in third, the last swimmer sub 1:50, for South Carolina at 1:49.66.
50yd. Freestyle
Women
After a great lead off in the sprint relay to kick off the session, Howard came back even stronger in the individual 50 race. She cut off another .2 from the relay, hitting the wall here in 22.43.
Filova was the next best, .6 behind, at 23.06. UConn got in for third with Chinyere Pigot at 23.08.
Out of the B final, Miller from William and Mary, finished in 23.16, the fourth fastest time overall.
Men
Virginia Tech lead a 1-2-3 sweep here in the splash and dash. Bonk led the way in 20.14 Latimer close behind in 20.18, and Fiala .01 behind at 20.19. All three registered NCAA B standards.
Eric Lethander from South Carolina was fourth, .5 behind at 20.68.
400yd. Medley Relay
Women
Virginia Tech’s team of Maggie Gruber (54.71), Weronika Paluszek (59.71), Fiona Donnelly (53.83) and Katarina Filova (50.16) posted a solid final time of 3:38.41.
The B team from VT was second in 3:44.50. William & Mary was third at 3:44.67, with Howard anchoring in 49.11 for the Tribe.
Also, notably Liberty’s butterfly leg Jess Reinhardt split 53.33 on her team’s relay that finished fourth.
Virginia Tech women lead the way on the team race, with 419.5 points. South Carolina is in second at 214.5 points.
Men
Virginia Tech’s quartet of Collin Higgins (48.52), Emmett Dignan (54.28), Morgan Latimer (46.35) and Joe Bonk (43.97) teamed together to win the race in a time of 3:13.12.
South Carolina hung with them through the first half, with Jay Warner at 48.33 and Jared Kauffman at 55.35, but they fell off at the butterfly leg of the race. Rounding out their relay was Sam Lynch, 48.72, and Kevin Leithold, 43.45.
Virginia Tech leads the way in the men’s meet, with 424 points over South Carolina, who has 290 points.
The meet will continue tomorrow with prelims of the 400IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke being contested at 10AM. Finals will follow with those events, plus the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay at 6PM.
That 53.33 100 fly split is even more impressive considering Liberty’s Jess Reinhardt was in a practice suit. If fact their whole team is racing apparently not shaven/tapered/suited.