By Tom Kuppelweiser
Six-time defending champion Virginia used a record-setting gold medal performance and a solid team effort to pad its lead in the 2014 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Competition on Thursday night at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
The Cavaliers, seeking their 12th overall title, finished day two of the competition with 516 points, followed by NC State (362), Florida State (357) and North Carolina (346).
Virginia Tech held fifth place with 273 points, followed by Notre Dame (264.5), Duke (202), Miami (194.5), Pitt (192.5) and Georgia Tech (174.5). Boston College (98) and Clemson (17) rounded out the scoring.
Several lines of the ACC’s overall and championship record books were re-written during Thursday evening’s competition.
In the men’s 3-meter diving final, Olympian Nick McCrory of Duke added to his ACC-record gold medal collection with his eighth first-place finish in an ACC Championship diving event. McCrory’s winning score totaled 531, breaking his own overall ACC record of 519 set earlier this month and his ACC championship mark of 498.60 set last season.
Virginia freshman Leah Smith picked up a gold medal in the women’s 500 freestyle with an ACC-record time of 4:34.35. Previous record holder Stephanie Peacock of North Carolina followed with a NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 4:36.8, and Florida State’s Madison Jacobi took the bronze at 4:37.77.
Another meet and conference record fell in the women’s 200 IM, where Notre Dame junior Emma Reaney swam to a winning time of 1:54.92. Virginia’s Kaitlyn Jones took the silver at 1:57.18, and the Cavaliers’ Ellen Williamson took home the bronze at 1:57.24.
Florida State senior Tiffany Oliver claimed the final individual title of the night with a 50 freestyle time of 22.02. NC State’s Riki Bonnema placed second at 22.16, followed by Duke’s Lauren Weaver at 22.19.
The women’s 200 free relay saw the NC State team of Lauren Poli, Ashlyn Koletic, Natalie Labonge and Bonnema claim the gold medal with a meet record time of 1:28.71. The Wolfpack, which won the event for the second year in a row, bested the previous mark of 1:29.21 set by Virginia in 2011.
In women’s diving action, Virginia Tech junior Kaylea Arnett became the first ACC student-athlete to win the 1-meter three straight years since Virginia’s Laurie Wagner did so in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Arnett posted a winning score of 355.65, followed by Miami’s Thea Vock at 332.6 and Florida State’s Katrina Young at 332.15.
Miami’s Samuel Dorman placed second to McCrory in the men’s 3-meter dive with a total score of 496.15, and Virginia Tech’s Ryan Hawkins claimed the bronze at 448.7.
Virginia Tech led the overall men’s team scoring with 71 points, followed by Miami (54), Florida State (51), North Carolina (41), Virginia (38), Duke (34), Notre Dame (32), Pitt (32), NC State (5) and Georgia Tech (4).
The Championship continues Friday at 11 a.m. with the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke preliminaries, with the finals in those events beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. The women’s 3-meter diving prelims start 1 p.m. with the finals at 7 p.m. The men’s one-meter prelims are at 3:55 p.m. and the finals start at 6 p.m.
One change of note in this year’s Championship is the addition of the scoring of all 24 competitors competing in a swimming final. In previous years, only the top 16 competitors received points that counted toward their team’s total.
Each top-three finisher in each individual event and each member of first-play relay teams earn All-ACC honors.
A live video stream of event finals will be available on theACC.com on Thursday through Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m., with Dean Linke handling play-by-play and Frank Comfort adding analysis.
There is no charge for admission to the 2014 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships. Parking is available for $8 or for $15 for a session pass.
All Championship information, including a full event schedule and live results, can be found at the official championship website, http://theacc.co/SDchamp. Fans can also get updates by following along on Twitter, @ACCSwimDive.
