2016 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, Feb. 24 – Saturday, Feb. 27; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
- Defending Champion: NC State (results)
- Streaming: watchESPN
- Championship Central
- Live Results
- Fan Guide
Through the first six swimming events of the 2016 ACC Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Virginia Tech junior Brandon Fiala’s win in the 200 IM tonight is the lone victory by any non-Wolfpack swimmer or relay team.
Fiala had the top seed after posting a 1:42.77 this morning, which was a lifetime best for him, and he successfully defended his position by dropping another half a second to win in 1:42.26, a NCAA “A” cut.
After the session was over, we caught up with Brandon to ask him about how it felt to win two years in a row, what, if anything he’d been focusing on to drop over 1.5 seconds in a year, and about any other specific goals for this weekend.
200 IM recap, as reported earlier by Jared Anderson:
200 IM – FINALS
- Brandon Fiala, VT – 1:42.26
- Soeren Dahl, NCSU – 1:42.50
- Nolan Tesone, LOU – 1:43.43
Virginia Tech’s Brandon Fiala held off a late NC State charge to successfully defend his 2015 ACC title in the 200 IM. Fiala, a junior, crushed his 2015 winning time by 1.7 seconds, dropping a huge 1:42.26 to earn an automatic NCAA invite.
Fiala was fast from the get-go, putting up the field’s best butterfly split at 22.13.
NC State junior Soeren Dahl made a late surge, coming up with the field’s best freestyle split at 24.28. He almost caught Fiala, but ran out of pool at the end, finishing in 1:42.50 for second an an automatic NCAA bid of his own.
Louisville’s Nolan Tesone used a big backstroke split to briefly take the lead, but Fiala surged back out front on breaststroke. Tesone would finish in 1:43.43. Behind him were UNC senior Ben Colley (1:44.44) and NC State freshman Justin Ress (1:44.52), both under the last time invited to NCAAs last year.