This weekend at Rolfs Aquatic Center, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish welcome their ACC competition of the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Pittsburgh Panthers. In a double dual meet format, the three teams will battle a full championship schedule of events over the course of two days. This weekend marks a turning point in the season for the three teams, as they have all had busy dual meet schedules and will soon be gearing up for their winter championship meets.
The meet started out with a thriller in the Women’s 200 Freestyle Relay as the Virginia Tech A relay of Margaret Parcell, Jessica Hespeler, Caroline Buscaglia, and Holly Harper touched out Notre Dame’s A relay by a mere hundredth of a second. In the Men’s 200 Freestyle Relay, it was Notre Dame’s A squad of Justin Plaschka, Zachary Stephens, Matthew Buerger, and Joseph Krause who beat the Virginia Tech A and B relays.
In the Women’s 400 IM, Virginia Tech sophomore Fiona Donnelly soundly beat her competition with an impressive time of 4:21.60. The runner-up was Notre Dame’s Katie Miller with a time of 4:24.54. This Virginia Tech-Notre Dame pattern was repeated in the Men’s 400 IM: Virginia Tech’s Robert Owen took first in a time of 3:58.54 with Notre Dame sophomore Tom Anderson close behind in 3:59.47. Anderson barely touched out Pitt’s Zachary Lierley, who took third.
Notre Dame senior Emma Reaney won the Women’s 100 Butterfly with a 54.38, followed by Kaudia Nazieblo and Maggie Gruber, both of Virginia Tech. For the men, Hokies Morgan Latimer (48.70) and Owen Burns (49.27) took first and third, respectively. Pittsburgh’s Kourosh Ahani (49.16) claimed second in the event.
Virginia Tech took first (Nazieblo), third (Harper), and fourth (Alice Boutant) in the Women’s 200 Backstroke, with only Miller (second) of the Irish sneaking into the Hokie-dominated top four. For the men, junior Collin Higgins of Virginia Tech took control of the race, finishing first in a 1:46.21, a full three seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Reaney of Notre Dame won the Women’s 100 Breaststroke in a 1:01.04, followed by Weronika Paluszek of the Hokies in a 1:03.26. In the Men’s 200 Breaststroke, Notre Dame’s Stephens (54.93) touched out Virginia Tech’s Brandon Fiala (55.44). Following these two men were another three Notre Dame breaststrokers: Patrick Olson, Cameron Miller, and Andy Jensen.
Notre Dame’s Catherine Mulquin won the Women’s 100 Freestyle in convincing fashion, beating out Virginia Tech’s Adiana Grabski by over a second. For the men, Virginia Tech claimed the top two spots, with Burns winning in 44.43 with Lucas Bureau taking second.
Pittsburgh’s talented distance group took the top two spots in the Women’s 1650 Freestyle. Freshman Amanda Richey won in 16:30.13, and junior Kaleigh Ritter took second in 16:49.01. For the men, Virginia Tech’s Jake Ores won in 15:47.64, followed by Notre Dame senior John Nappi (15:56.64) and Notre Dame freshman Benjamin Jany (15:59.09).
Notre Dame’s A relay took first in the Women’s 200 Medley Relay (1:42.59), followed by Virginia Tech (1:42.79) and Pittsburgh (1:44.45). For the Men’s 200 Medley Relay, Notre Dame’s A and B relays claimed the top two spots ahead of Virginia Tech’s B relay.
In the longest relay of the night, the 800 Freestyle, Virginia Tech won both the Men’s and the Women’s events. For the women, the Hokies also took second, whereas for the men, Notre Dame was the runner up.
Over in the diving well, the Notre Dame women swept the 1 Meter event, with Allison Casareto (298.75), Lindsey Streepey (284.80), and Emma Gaboury (283.65) coming in first, second, and third, respectively. In Men’s 3 Meter, Thomas Shinholser of Virginia Tech claimed first (364.20), followed by Notre Dame senior Michael Kreft (335.85) and Virginia Tech senior Jared Butts (330.55).
The exciting ACC action returns tomorrow in Rolfs Aquatics at 10 am when all three teams pick up the competition once again for the remainder of the swimming and diving events. Check back tomorrow for the results of these events and the outcomes of the double dual meet tomorrow afternoon.