ACC Swimmers of the Week
Women’s Swimmer of the Week-Liz Shaw (Virginia)-Shaw won 3 individual events against North Carolina, but none was bigger than her victory in the 200 IM that gave the Cavaliers the lead.
Men’s Swimmer of the Week-Jo Kinderwater (North Carolina)-Though his team couldn’t pull out a win, Jo Kinderwater’s 9:00.21 in the 1000 free was too impressive to overlook.
#14 Virginia Men Knock Off #9 North Carolina to Reclaim ACC Supremacy
After slipping up against Tennessee last week and sliding back to #14 in the latest CSCAA rankings, the Virginia men (5-1) were itching to show that they are still the dominant team in the ACC. They did just that by handing the #9 North Carolina Tarheels (6-1) their first dual-meet loss of the year by a score of 162-138. The meet was a back-and-forth affair with plenty of great racing from both sides that resulted in several season-best and nationally-ranked times. Despite a moderately comfortable 24-point win for Virginia, this meet could have easily gone the other way.
In the opening 200 medley relay, the two teams were nearly dead even through most of the race, but a 19.71 anchor leg from Steve Cebertowicz was just enough to pull away from the 19.87 by Tom Barett from Virginia. UNC’s final time was 1:29.59, which is their best time this season. UNC extended it’s lead in the next event, the 1000 free, thanks to a 9:00.12 from Jo Kinderwater, which is the best time in the nation this year. Virginia did manage to pull off a 2-3-4-5 finish, however, to keep the Tarheels in reach.
Virginia got their first event win of the day next in the 200 free, with a 1:36.85 from senior Matt McLean, but a 2-3-4 from Carolina again kept the scoring tight. Tommy Wyher came right back to take an easy victory in the 100 back for the Tarheels in 48.36.
North Carolina extended their lead after the 100 breaststroke thanks to a great 55.46 from Vinny Pryor that was good enough to hold off at-or-near-season-best times from Virginia’s Taylor Grey (55.63) and Tom Casey (55.95). Thomas Luchsinger gave Carolina their 5th win in 6 events with a textbook swim in the 200 fly. He pulled away from the field with a blazing third 50 (27.80) to finish in 1:48.16.
In event seven, Virginia started fighting back with a 1-2 finish in the 50 free from Peter Geissenger (20.44) and Barett (20.51). This was the singular turning point of the meet that set off a streak of 7-straight event wins for the Cavaliers. In that stretch, the team’s stars stepped up big for them in key races..
Scot Robison took the 100 free in 44.28, which was a great time for him in an otherwise disappointing day. His other two individual races for the meet, the 50 free and 100 fly, seem to point to a continued struggle to find a third individual event for NCAA’s to match with the 100 and 200 frees. The 100 fly seems to be an illogical choice, as it falls just before his best event the 200 free, but he seems to be putting too much effort into the race still to deny that it’s a viable option for coach Mark Bernadino.
Speaking of the 100 fly, it resulted in probably the best race of the meet between Peter Geissenger of Virginia and Tommy Wyher of North Carolina. Geissenger jumped out to a lead of a tenth halfway through the race, but Wyher fought back inch-by-inch on the backhalf. Geissenger was able to time his stroke just a little better than Wyher to take the win 48.79-49.84.
Matt McLean also had a great swim to win the 500 free in 4:20.84, which is easily the best time in the country in the post-holiday season. Him versus Florida’s Conor Dwyer, among others, in the 500 free could sneak up as one of the best battles of the NCAA Championships.
Virginia built up a bit of a cushion in that seven-event streak, and they’d need every bit of it with three events left in the meet. The Tarheels took wins on the 3 meter (David MacDonald) and in the 200 IM from Tyler Harris (1:49.01). The boys from Chapel Hill were left just a bit short of a surmountable score headed into the last relay, which the Cavaliers won in 2:57.10. The relay included four 44-lows from all members of the Virginia foursome.
Virginia also knocked of Duke on Sunday on senior day.
Full Results: UNC at Virginia | Duke at Virginia
#9 Virginia Women Rock #11 Tarheels
Like their male counterparts, the Virginia women are coming off of a tough loss at the hands of Tennessee. Also like the men, the Virginia women bounced back to take a great victory over North Carolina in a score of 161.5-138.5. And once again, like the men, the Virginia women had to come from behind to take the title. Their young swimmers kept them in the meet, but they looked to their seniors to lower the hammer at the end of the meet.
The meet was back-and-forth through the first 14 events. Through this stretch, Virginia got a great swim from freshman Rachel Naurath in the 1000 free with a time of 9:48.73. This time is her best on the season and is ranked 7th in the country this year (and easily the best in the ACC). In fact, each of the top 6 swimmers in this race, including UVA’s Katya Bachrouche (2nd-9:53.27) and UNC’s Katura Harvey (3rd-9:54.59). They also got a pair of great swims from Lauren Perdue in the 200 (1:45.74) and 100 (48.82) freestyles.
Liz Shaw also earned a stroke-sweep for the Cavaliers in taking the 100 fly (54.24) and 200 fly (1:57.47). That time in the 200 fly is her best of the season and ranked 14th in the country.
This duo of Naurath and Perdue, who are a freshman and sophomore respectively, has a serious shot at sweeping all 5 freestyle races at NCAA’s in their 3 years together.
North Carolina also had great swims from their young swimmers; notably sophomore Carly Smith. She swept the backstrokes with NCAA B-times of 54.19 in the 100 and 1:58.21 in the 200. Really impressive for North Carolina was Rebecca Kane’s 22.77 time to win the 50 free.
Headed into the second-to-last event of the meet, Virginia trailed North Carolina by 3 points. Coach Mark Bernadino called on three of his seniors, including the aforementioned Shaw, to lift his team up.
“I was glad I had who I had left for the 200 individual medley,” Bernardino said. “We had three seniors left. I told the girls that nobody had beaten them in their four-year ACC career. It was no more appropriate to have three seniors in this race. The three that we happen to have in there are all individual medley champions in the ACC. We had the right cards left to play in the end and I don’t think there was any way they were going to be denied.”
And denied they weren’t. The Cavaliers won the maximum 16 points in the 200 IM thanks to a 1-2-3 finish from Shaw (2:00.64), Claire Crippen (2:01.51), and Amanda Faulkner (2:03.64) to grab a 10-point lead. Virginia needed only a first-or-second-place finish in the 400 free relay to ensure victory, and they did much better than that by claiming both first and second. The winning time was 3:20.15, including an anchor time of 49.82 from Emily Lloyd.
The Virginia women celebrated their senior day, including those three swimmers who lifted them to victory, by taking a 156-132 win over Duke.
Full Results: North Carolina at Virginia | Duke at Virginia
Other ACC News
The #18 Florida State men dropped a tight 157.5-141.5 decision to #17 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Seminoles needed a 1-2 finish in the 400 free relay to take the meet, and went for broke by splitting their top relay swimmers. They instead fell just short with a 2-3 finish. BJ Hornikel, part of Alabama’s great freshman class, completed an undefeated regular season in the 100 free by winning in 44.92. This completes a perfect 7-0 season for them, including a win over in-state rival Auburn…
The Florida State women put away a 157-143 victory over Alabama with a win in the 400 free relay. Stephanie Sarandos swept the backstrokes for Florida State with times of 55.95 and 1:59.24…
Prior to their senior-day victories over Duke, Virginia had a special ceremony to honor Fran Crippen, who is a former Cavalier swimmer and older brother of current Wahoo Claire Crippen. A great photo gallery of the ceremony can be seen here…
The Maryland women picked up a strong road victory over West Virginia 202-96. Senior Annie Fittin won the 100 back (57.57) and 50 free (23.52). The Maryland men fell 213-87…
Tom Barrett is a nice mid year addition from Australia.for Virginia and should help considerably on the relays. I would think robison would still be swimming the 50 where he can score points at conference.
Kinderwater continues to show his dominance in distance but I would give ACC swimmer to Giessinger who had a very good meet with his 2 wins