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Miami, Florida State Lead Men’s ACC Championships after Diving

Braden Keith
by Braden Keith 6

February 24th, 2020 ACC, College, News

2020 ACC – Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships

As we turn the page on the ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, where the Virginia women won with a historic performance, it’s time to look forward to this coming weekend’s ACC men’s championship meet.

One piece of that puzzle is already slotted in: diving. As has been tradition for the ACC, men’s divers compete in week 1 with the women’s teams, so there is a baseline score heading into the swimming portion of the meet.

Each school is allowed to enter 3 divers in the meet (an exception is made for Miami, which doesn’t have a swimming program, and as such is not really contending for any places in the team competition). That standardization of entries has changed the scheme, where schools no longer have to make choices about how to balance swimming entries versus diving entries, where previously schools like Virginia Tech would go big in diving, and schools like NC State and Virginia would enter the swimming portion with a 100+ point deficit to make up, but knowing that they had way more entries in swimming events.

Thanks to investments in diving programs from places like NC State and Virginia, however, the conference is way more balanced coming out of the diving portion. In fact, the two leading contenders for the team title, NC State and Virginia, are separated by only 7 diving points, and the 2-7 teams are separated by only 25 diving points.

1 Meter 3 Meter Platform Total Scores
1 Miami* 29 55 113 197
2 Florida State 45 45 37 127
3 North Carolina 59 45 20 124
4 NC State 44 55 24 123
5 Virginia 36 42 38 116
6 Louisville 33 27 44 104
7 Duke 41 32 29 102
8 Virginia Tech 35 31 19 85
9 Georgia Tech 28 4 14 46
10 Notre Dame 0 15 23 38
11 Pitt 12 11 1 24

* – Miami doesn’t sponsor a men’s swimming program, so these diving points are all that they will score at the ACC Championships.

That means that the swimmers will determine the team champions at the meet.

The Swimulator, which focuses on scoring the championship meet based on season-best times so far, has NC State swimmers well out ahead of the conference in projected points in the pool, by 85 points ahead of Florida State, which has bounced back well after big graduations last season. Louisville had a very good women’s meet, as did Virginia, and if their men’s teams follow suit, they’re contenders as well.

But, the NC State divers held serve, and that puts their swimmers in position to win the men’s meet ahead of what should be a very interesting battle for 2nd place.

Swimulator ACC Men’s Swimming Projections:

NC State 1055.5
Florida St 970.5
Louisville 933
Virginia 855
Notre Dame 755.5
Virginia Tech 628
UNC 540
Georgia Tech 534
Pittsburgh 498
Duke 337.5
Boston College 168

Diving Event Winners

The first event of the meet, the men’s 3-meter, was won by NC State senior James Brady with a score of 392.65. Brady becomes the Wolfpack’s first ACC men’s diving champion since Andy Johnson won the 3-meter in 2000.

3-Meter Top 3:

  1. James Brady, NC State – 392.65
  2. Brodie Scapens, Miami – 388.95
  3. Max Flori, Miami – 387.25

Joshua Davidson of Florida State, a junior, dominated the men’s 1-meter event with a score of 382.95 – more than 40 points ahead of runner-up Ruben Lechuga of Gerogia Tech. None of the top 3 from the 3-meter finished on the podium of the 1-meter as well.

1-Meter Top 3:

  1. Joshua Davidson, Florida State – 382.95
  2. Ruben Lechuga, Georgia Tech – 342.50
  3. Noah Zawadzki, Virginia Tech – 337.50

The men’s platform event was utter domination by Miami, taking the top 4 placings and having nobody within 40 points of them. The next-best finisher was Virginia’s Walker Creedon. For Miami senior David Dinsmore, this was his 4th-straight conference title on platform.

Platform Top 3:

  1. David Dinsmore, Miami – 510.35
  2. Zachary Cooper, Miami – 343.65
  3. Max Flory, Miami – 429.15

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Nonrevhoofan
4 years ago

Add in 50 points (5th place) for the Virginia 800 Free Relay and the scores tighten even more.

Swimmer
4 years ago

We will see how much DeSorbo magic transfers over to the men’s side.

GrantJ
4 years ago

Congrats to the Pack’s James Brady for being named most valuable diver of the men’s meet. Great job in your last ACC champs meet.

Impressive performance by The U on the platform. Good luck at Zones and NCAAs.

Fly 100
4 years ago

What about FIU ?

Fly 100
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Sorry, I was referring to the “U” vs FIU football game earlier in the year :-). Its a shame that Miami lost its men’s swimming program that produced greats like Wilkie, Gribble, Vasallo..back in the day…Bring it back !

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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