With the team title still very much up in the air through last night’s final the prelims on the final day of the ACC Championships were a big test for the major players. Defending team champions Virginia took advantage of the opportunity and qualified strongly for the final session. Cross state rival and host Virginia Tech were also looking strong this morning and in search of their first ACC team title.
1650 Free
After winning the 500 free on Thursday evening, Florida State’s Mateo de Angulo was poised to take his second win of the championships in the grueling 1650. De Angulo averaged 27s through the first 500 before dropping to 26 seconds on the next 200. It was then that he made his move on the rest of the field and never looked back to finish as the only swimmer under 15 minutes at 14:53.68. He has been faster this season back at the Georgia Tech Invitational, an indication that he was swimming through these championships in preparation for NCAAs next month.
Virginia’s Bradley Phillips stuck with the field through the first 1200 before pulling away to finish in second in 15:06.95.
Brett Naple of North Carolina also used a strong back half to finish third in 15:10.47. UVA’s Jon Daniec took the race out strong but faded down the stretch to finish in fourth in 15:19.79.
200 Back
The defending champion Chris Dart may have qualified as the fourth seed out of prelims this morning but the Clemson swimmers were swimming with a lot of emotion tonight as they were likely swimming in their final ACC Championships. Dart took the lead from the start and powered to one of the final conference title for the Clemson Tigers in 1:42.98.
Brady Fox made a final push to try and catch Dart, finishing with the fastest last 50 of the field in 26.56 but he couldn’t quite close the gap to finish in 1:43.10.
Florida State’s Josh Friedel also closed the race in under 27 seconds (26.96) to finish third in 1:44.59.
As mentioned last night, this morning’s preliminaries were crucial in the team title race and Virginia took advantage by getting three Cavaliers in the A final here. Along with Fox, Parker Camp finished in sixth and Matthew Murray was seventh.
After this event and with all diving now included the top four teams are separated by 49 points with Virginia sitting atop the leader board. Virginia Tech sits in second after a great diving competition last weekend and many outstanding swims this week. North Carolina is third with Florida State in fourth.
100 Free
Well Eric Bruck wasn’t ready to let teammate Chris Dart take the only title for Clemson tonight. Bruck went out fast and held on down the stretch to give the Tigers its second champion of the evening. It was clear that the Clemson swimmers were swimming with lots of emotion tonight in its final appearance at the conference championships.
Bruck finished in 43.11 to hold off a late push from Virginia’s Peter Geissinger who finished in 43.19.
Defending champion Steve Cebertowicz of UNC also took the race out fast and led at the 50 mark but just couldn’t hold the lead down the stretch to fade to third in 43.21.
UVA were again able to get three swimmers into the A final to extend its lead over Virginia Tech.
200 Breast
It was a tight battle in the middle of the pool between Duke’s Piotr Safronczyk and Anton Lagerqvist of Georgia Tech. Safronczyk took the race out fast to turn in 56.44 but it was Lagerqvist who closed in 1:00.57, just over half a second fast then Safronczyk to take the win. Anton Lagerqvist finishes in 1:57.01 with Piotr Safronczyk right behind in 1:57.03.
Florida State’s Juan Sequera was also under 1:58 to take third in 1:57.85.
Virginia’s lone representative in the top heat finished in a tie for fourth while Virginia Tech’s Emmett Dignan moved up six spots in the B final to win the heat.
200 Fly
Defending champion Tom Luchsinger only qualified sixth out of preliminaries this morning but the North Carolina junior wasn’t about to relinquish his title to claim his second title of the meet in 1:44.53. His UNC teammate Dominick Glavich claims second in 1:44.65.
Virginia Tech had some big swims in the morning prelims to take four of the eight final spots. Greg Mahon, the 100 butterfly champion from last night, took third in the longer distance in 1:45.21. His Hokie teammate Nick Tremols was fourth in 1:45.28.
Virginia also had two finalists who finished in fifth and sixth respectively. While Virginia Tech closed the gap to just 22 points it will take a Virginia disqualification in the relay to give the Hokies the team title.
400 Free Relay
Coming into this race there had been four relays swum and four different teams had claimed victory in each. With Virginia, NC State, Florida State, and Virginia Tech each taking home a relay title it would be the Seminoles who would take home a second. Sweeping the sprint freestyle relays, the team of Paul Murray, Trice Bailey, David Sanders, and Mark Weber finish in 2:52.65.
The UNC foursome of Steve Cebertowicz, Kyle Ficker, Brock Parker, and Evan Reed just couldn’t hold off a brilliant anchor from Weber (42.36) and settled for second in 2:53.07.
Virginia’s Peter Geissinger, Tom Barrett, David Karasek, and Parker Camp finished in third in 2:54.29.
It should be noted that following the final race of the evening the team from Clemson gathered at the edge of the pool one final time at the ACC Championships. The entire crowd and fellow swimmers stood to applaud the Tigers and joined them in their team cheer in an emotional closing to the Clemson swimming & diving program.
In the end it was the Virginia Cavaliers that claimed its fifth consecutive ACC title finishing 32 points ahead of runners-up Virginia Tech. It certainly wasn’t the easiest win for the Cavs but in the end their depth proved to be the key. Virginia Tech put up a great fight for their bid for their first ACC title utilizing strong swimming performances and sweeping the diving events last weekend. The final team totals are as followed:
- Virginia 626.5
- Virginia Tech 594.5
- North Carolina 564
- Florida State 542
- NC State 334.5
- Georgia Tech 289
- Duke 271.5
- Clemson 252.5
- Maryland 207.5
- Boston College 78
- Miami 27