2017 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships
- Monday, February 13 – Thursday, February 16
- Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Standard Time)
- Prelims 10AM / Finals 6PM
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- List of Events
- Live on ACC Network Extra 6 – 8:30PM
Day 3 of the 2017 Women’s ACC Championships bring fast swimming in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, and 100 back. NC State now has the lead in the team standings, but the defending champions from Virginia, who currently sit in 2nd, will look to battle back today.
WOMEN’S 400 IM
- Kaitlyn Jones, Virginia, 4:09.94
- Reka Gyorgy, Virginia Tech, 4:09.98
- Hannah Moore, NC State, 4:10.93
- Rachel Politi, Virginia, 4:11.07
- Catherine Hulsey, UNC, 4:11.34
- Kira Debruyn, Georgia Tech, 4:12.99
- Rachael Bradford-Feldman, Louisville, 4:13.65
- Fiona Donnelly, Virginia Tech, 4:14.03
The Cavaliers have 2 in the championship final with top seed Kaitlyn Jones and 4th seed Rachel Politi. Jones will be looking to defend her title in the event tonight as a senior. She’s been as fast as 4:06.33 before, so look for a significant time drop tonight.
Virginia Tech also got 2 in with Reka Gyorgy and Fiona Donnelly. Gyorgy was the only swimmer other than Jones to break 4:10 this morning. Coming in behind her for 3rd seed was NC State’s Hannah Moore.
WOMEN’S 100 FLY
- Hellen Moffitt, UNC, 50.99
- Grace Oglesby, Louisville, 52.27
- Leah Goldman, Duke, 52.29
- Sarah Koucheki, UNC, 52.37
- Tayla Lovemore, FSU, 52.38
- Alyssa Marsh, Duke, 52.43
- Erin Sheehan, Notre Dame, 52.46
- Nastja Govejsek, Louisville, 52.75
UNC’s Hellen Moffitt was in a league of her own this morning, crushing the field with a 50.99. She’ll be joined in the final by teammate Sarah Koucheki, who took 4th. Louisville and Duke each got a pair in as well, with Grace Oglesby and Nastja Govejsek representing the Cardinals, while Leah Goldman and Alyssa Marsh represent the Blue Devils.
Notre Dame’s Nicole Smith was one of the top performers this morning, but was disqualified after going past 15 meters on one of her underwaters. Results intitially showed Smith as tied for 3rd with a 52.29.
WOMEN’S 200 FREE
- Mallory Comerford, Louisville, 1:43.74
- Leah Smith, Virginia, 1:43.79
- Jessica Hespeler, Virginia Tech, 1:44.96
- Jenn Marrkand, Virginia, 1:45.22
- Abby Dolan, Notre Dame, 1:45.42
- Haibing Wang, Georgia Tech, 1:45.87
- Morgan Hill, Virginia, 1:46.23
- Eryn Eddy, Virginia, 1:46.32
The big storyline individually tonight is the race between Virginia’s Leah Smith and Louisville’s Mallory Comerford, who were just 5 hundredths apart this morning. Team wise, this should be a huge event for Virginia, as they make up half of the championship final. Freshman Morgan Hill has been clutch for the Cavaliers, making the championship final in her first conference meet.
WOMEN’S 100 BREAST
- Andee Cottrell, Louisville, 58.61
- Kayla Brumbaum, NC State, 58.85
- Laura Simon, Virginia, 59.01
- Lina Rathsack, Pitt, 59.80
- Natalie Pierce, Florida State, 59.98
- Meaghan O’Donnell, Notre Dame, 1:00.13
- Vivian Tafuto, Virginia, 1:00.35
- Silvia Guerra, Louisville, 1:00.53
Louisville’s Andee Cottrell came within a few tenths of her own Meet Record this morning to take top honors in 58.61, while teammate Silvia Guerra snuck into the A-final at 8th. Also swimming sub-59 with a new personal best time was NC State’s Kayla Brumbaum (58.85). Virginia’s Laura Simon rounded out the top 3. She’ll be joined in the final by teammate Vivian Tafuto, who took 7th seed. Look out for FSU’s Natalie Pierce as well, as she’s been as fast as 58.37 this season.
WOMEN’S 100 BACK
- Elise Haan, NC State, 51.13
- Alexia Zevnik, NC State, 51.14
- Courtney Caldwell, NC State, 51.35
- Hellen Moffitt, UNC, 51.43
- Caroline Baldwin, UNC, 51.59
- Klaudia Nazieblo, Virginia Tech, 52.53
- Alina Kendzior, Louisville, 52.64
- Lotta Nevalainen, NC State, 52.81
The NC State backstroke group was on fire this morning, getting 4 of the top 8 spots for finals. Transfer sophomore Elise Haan led the way with a lifetime best 51.13 for the Wolfpack, finishing a hundredth ahead of teammate Alexia Zevnik. Fellow Wolfpack sophomore Courtney Caldwell dropped almost a full second from her best time, touching in 51.35 to give the team a sweep of the top 3 seeds. Lotta Nevalainen also secured a spot in the final at 8th.
There to challenge tonight will be UNC’s Hellen Moffitt (51.43), who qualified 4th to make her 2nd championship final of the day. Teammate Caroline Baldwin (51.59) was also sub-52 to take 5th behind her.
Wow. NCSt and UVa just keep throwing punching back and forth. Makes it really interesting when the best two teams’ best events don’t really converge much.
So hoping MComerford can pull out the win in 200 free tonight over Smith!!
Wow!! Someone really made a STATEment with a hellUVA swim this morning. TECHnically the points wont count until tonight, but as long as the touch pads stay fUNCtional it could be a close battle for 2ND place. I expect to see a circus or even vaudeVILLE type finish to this meet. But hey, every one seems to be swimming pretty F(L)AST at this meet. CU all tonight.
Nice play!
Who is the swimmer featured in the picture accompanying this article? I love Leah Smith, but it is nice to see another athlete in a photo 🙂 Though I am hoping when the Men’s ACCs come around we will get a LOT of Ryan Held pictures!!!
Hi ACC Fan. That’s Louisville’s Mallory Comerford
Thank you Lauren and most likely Mallory will be an Olympian one day too! I totally understand featuring Olympians. They are our celebrities of swimming and bring great attention to the sport.
UVA with 4 up in the 2 free and NC State answers with 4 up in the 1 back. Definitely makes for an interesting night!
It should be 1:42
Scoring finals as swam in prelims, (no diving) and NCSU maintains first place.
(NCSU / UVa / Lou)
400 IM: 57/69/36
100 Fly: 33/24/54
200 Fr: 23/113/65
100 Br: 28/74/56
100 Bk: 130/21/24
400 MR: 52/64/56
NC State maintains a 25 point lead on UVa and 101.5 point lead on Louisville.
Thank you Eddie! Nice job on this! Just curious why you didn’t put UNC in there as they seem to have had a good morning? Thanks again!
Partly because I saw them compete rather uninspired at the end of January, and partly because I was running out of space on my paper. But, since you asked:
UNC goes 44/58/15/25/80/50 by swimming events which leaves them 119.5 points back of NCSU. So not counting diving, and swam as seeded, the rankings at the end of the night are:
NCSU
UVa (-25)
UofL (-101.5)
UNC (-119.5)
Joel Lin is correct to point out that the Hoos have more upward mobility than the Pack do tonight by virtue of squeaking into higher heats.
Will be tight after today. UVA has 4 swimmers at 16th place after prelims, 1 at 15th, 1 at 8th, 1 at 7th;
NCSU has 1 at 8th, so more potential for UVA to improve that NCSU. I predict a margin of about 10 by the end of the night. By my count NCSU will have 2 more “available swims” tomorrow than UVA. But clearly seems to be down to a two team race tomorrow, and UNC seems to be falling back to a 4-5 battle rather than a threat to Louisville.
Great point. Getting into evenings at 8th or 16th is huge. 9th prelims finishes are the most discouraging.
UVA also holds a (nominal) advantage over NCS in diving. It will be very close after tonite assuming no DQs.
NC state bus broke down this AM?
They don’t even have a bus…..
Yea, and Elise Haan broke her hand in the warm up pool last night too.
FAN – I wasn’t at prelims this morning. Did Elise swim with a cast on her hand? If so, that’s one heck of a 100 BK swim!
Holloway will get her going 48 once the cast is off!
Swimfan – we asked NC State’s media relations folks about this, and they indicated that Haan is fine. As indicated by taking the top seed in the 100 back.
Braden, thank you for the clarification. Glad to hear everyone is okay! I’m getting my popcorn ready to go for this dual meet… I mean ACC 🙂
Great swimming all around.. UVA showed up as the defending champion. NCSU had some ups and downs, but overall good enough to stay in the game. Louisville is flying under the radar and had an impressive morning. UNC studs are swimming EXTREMELY WELL!
As a swim fan, this is exactly what I was hoping for! Close and FAST meet! How about the 100 breast? sooooo deeeeeeep.
As a swim fan, let’s keep this comment sections CLEAN! These ladies are human too 🙂 Wait until the guys meet if you’d like to talk trash 🙂
GOOD LUCK TO ALL TONIGHT! This is great for the ACC!!!
The men are human, too. ?
They don’t use a bus. They travel in vans.
is that a bus or a van? I guess It arrived at the pool in time for the backstroke prelims.
It’s a bvan