2017 Women’s ACC Championships: Day 3 Finals Live Recap

by Eli Noblitt 21

February 15th, 2017 ACC, College, News, Previews & Recaps

2017 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

Day Three of the 2017 ACC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships commences tonight in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The NC State women will begin the third finals session with a 67-point lead over second place Virginia. North Carolina sits in third, just a point-and-a-half behind Virginia.

The women’s swimmers will compete tonight in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 freestyle, 100 breast, 100 back, and 400 medley relay. In between the 100 back and 400 medley relay, men’s diving will compete in the 3-meter springboard.

Women’s 400 IM

  1. Reka Gyorgy, Virginia Tech, 4:04.97
  2. Kaitlyn Jones, Virginia, 4:06.80
  3. Hannah Moore, NC State, 4:09.10

Virginia Tech freshman Reka Gyorgy stepped up big for the Hokies in her first conference meet. Through the butterfly leg, Virginia’s defending champion Kaitlyn Jones held the lead, but Gyorgy broke ahead on the backstroke and never looked back, winning in 4:04.97 to Jones’ 4:06.80. Also swimming sub-4:10 was NC State’s Hannah Moore, who picked up bronze in 4:09.10.

Louisville’s Rachel Bradford-Feldman chased down UNC’s Catherine Hulsey with a 27.83 split on the final 50. She clocked in at 4:10.11 to out-touch Hulsey (4:10.16) by 5 hundredths.

Women’s 100 Fly

  1. Hellen Moffitt, UNC, 50.86
  2. Leah Goldman, Duke, 51.62
  3. Erin Sheehan, Notre Dame, 52.22

Women’s 200 Free

  1. Mallory Comerford, Louisville, 1:41.70
  2. Leah Smith, Virginia, 1:43.29
  3. Jessica Hespeler, Virginia Tech, 1:44.37

Mallory Comerford did even the score over Leah Smith after she finished second in the 500 free last night. Comerford’s 1:41.70 beat’s Olympian Lauren Perdue ACC record by eight tenths. What was perhaps most impressive about her swim is that she outsplit distance phenom Leah Smith on the final 50 by almost a full second.

Notably for UVA, who is trying to make up ground on NC State, also finished 5th, 6th, and 7th (with Jennifer Marrkan, Morgan Hill, and Eryn Eddy, respectively).

Women’s 100 Breast

  1. Laura Simon, UVA, 58.46
  2. Andrea Cottrell, Louisville, 58.81
  3. Kayla Brumbaum, NC State, 58.91

The ACC women flexed their muscles in the 100 yard breaststroke, which closed out with three swimmers from three different schools dipping below the 59-second mark. The entire podium was made up of seniors. Virginia senior Laura Simon won the race after shaving off more than a half-second from her prelim swim.

Virginia’s Vivan Tafuto was 4th (59.79) and Florida State’s Natalie Pierce was 5th (59.87), to round out the group of swimmers with sub-minute swims.

Women’s 100 Back

  1. Alexia Zevnik, NC State (50.80)
  2. Caroline Baldwin, UNC (51.38)
  3. Hellen Moffitt, UNC (51.42)

NC State senior Alexia Zevnik picked up her second individual title of the championship meet, finishing just 6 one-hundredths off Courtney Bartholomew’s ACC record. Zevnik was the only swimmer under 51 seconds. She was followed by a pair of Tar Heel upperclassmen in Caroline Baldwin and Hellen Moffitt.

NC State put four swimmers in the final, with sophomore Courtney Caldwell finishing in fourth in 51.75. Elise Haan who had the fastest time coming out of prelims settled for sixth with a 52.18.

Men’s 3-Meter Diving

  1. Domin Giordano, Pittsburgh, 451.60
  2. Briadam Herrera, Miami, 428.70
  3. John Nyquist, UNC, 407.10

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

  1. NC State, 3:28.26
  2. Louisville, 3:30.45
  3. UVA, 3:31.42

NC State put together four superb legs to come away with the 400 medley relay title by more than two seconds. They were just one hundredth of a second away from tying the ACC Championship meet record. Alexia Zevnik again swam a sub-51 second 100 back, just minutes after coming away with the individual title in that discipline.

Louisville took second thanks, in part, to a 46.71 100 freestyle leg from Mallory Comerford. UNC struggled on the breaststroke leg, but had the fastest 100 fly leg in the field with Hellen Moffitt (51.01), and away with a 4th place finish.

Day Three Standings:

  1. North Carolina State University 776.5    2. Virginia, University of           750
  3. Louisville, University of       674.5    4. North Carolina, University of,    665
  5. Duke University                 513.5    6. VA Tech                           485
  7. Florida State University        457.5    8. Notre Dame, University of       428.5
  9. University of Miami (Florida)   294.5   10. Pittsburgh, University of         294
 11. Georgia Institute of Technology   256   12. Boston College                    122
 13. Clemson University Diving Team    73

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Acc fan
7 years ago

Why no commentary on the fly? I think it is impressive how much faster the event has gotten since Kelsi Worrell swam through this conference.

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Natalie Pierce only 59.87 in the 100 breast. 1.50 s off her PB from last December.
Either the pool was a 24-yard pool last December or she is not much rested this week. Probably the second reason. And if it’s the case we can’t blame her. The big meet is next month.

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Interesting day.
Swimming is really sometimes pure logic.
Mallory Comerford swam a 1.41.12 relay split on day 1. Generally you add around 0.5 s/0.6 s to predict the time flat-start so she was in 1.41.60/1.41.70 mode the other day. And logically she won the 200 free in 1.41.70. Pure locic. Even a little bit terrifying! 🙂
Great performance for her. She improves slowly but surely. She has a good mix of speed and endurance. When you swim in 47 in the 100 free and in 4.37 in the 500 free you know your best distance is the 200 free. If she can convert her progression into long course then she will be quickly a major piece of… Read more »

Brad
7 years ago

Anybody have info on NCSU and UVAs number of swims to go on the last day? UVa on psych sheet appears accurate but it looks like NCSU coaches overentered several swimmers.

Reply to  Brad
7 years ago

Likely Moore swims the mile and not the 2 fly. Beyond that I’m just not sure.

NCSwimFan
Reply to  Brad
7 years ago

Not sure about UVA, but for NC State:

1650 Free – Hannah Moore, Rachel Muller, and Anna Jahns will all swim for sure. Fairly good seeding for the trio, slight advantage to State over UVA given they have 3 swimming vs. UVA’s 2.

200 Back – Alexia Zevnik, Mackenzie Glover, and Elise Haan will swim. Hannah Moore and Rachel Muller will not (1650). Not sure about Lindsay Morrow – was a backstroker for them last year but has transitioned into more IM and breaststroke, could see her swim the 2 breast instead. UVA has no one entered in the 2 back, and State’s three all have a good chance of getting into A final (with Zevnik having a good chance… Read more »

Joel Lin
7 years ago

UVA made back about 50 points in the pool today. They make back 15-20 points in diving tomorrow, so going into the last day it is pretty much heads up in the pool races between UVA & NCS.

NCS certainly has the advantage in the 100 free & 200 back, but I think UVA’s depth just hits too hard in the other 3 individual events tomorrow.

Hoos make it 10 in a row tomorrow.

Swimfan
Reply to  Joel Lin
7 years ago

Don’t forget NC STATE has 3 (high ranked) and Hoos with 2 in the mile. This is going to be close. I hope it comes down to the last relay!!

Swimnerd
Reply to  Joel Lin
7 years ago

NCS also has a great trio of milers that could cause some issues for the Hoos, I think NC state takes it, 3 of the 5 events are in their favor for tomorrow. UVA doesn’t really have much depth, I don’t understand the continued discussion of depth.

7 years ago

The events didn’t quite finish up as seeded, but the team margins are pretty much exactly as predicted. Tomorrow will be very interesting.

NCSwimFan
7 years ago

NC State takes the 400 MR convincingly! Now maintaining a 26.5 point lead on UVA and a bit over 100 points on Louisville. Really shaping up to be a big last day. That 200 MR DQ by UVA could come back to haunt them in a big way…

H2OCupid
7 years ago

Eddie, your point predictions were right on. NCSU with a 26.5 point lead over UVA. That extra half point may be what it takes for the Wolfpack to win!