Day 3 of the Women’s ACC Championships in Atlanta is in the books. Here’s a look at 5 noteworthy events that took place this evening:
1) UNC Takes the Lead: This evening was a back-and-forth point battle between the Cavaliers and the Tarheels. UVA is the defending champion of the ACC, but as of the end of the Friday night session, UNC was in the lead. Going into tomorrow, the scores are set at UNC 862 – UVA 839, a small margin that indicates that tomorrow will be the decider between the two teams after additional day of competition. The third place team right now, Virginia Tech, holds 664 points – a strong showing, but one that is a more comfortable distance away from the top two.
2) Louisville and UVA Pick Up Golds: The Cavaliers and the Cardinals were largely dominant in tonight’s events. UVA claimed the 200 freestyle (Leah Smith – 1:43.88), the 100 backstroke (Courtney Bartholomew – 51.36), and the 400 Medley Relay (Bartholomew, Simon, Williamson, and Jones). Meanwhile, Louisville picked up wins in the 400 IM (Tanja Kylliainnen – 4:04.21), and the 100 butterfly (Kelsi Worrell – 50.17). The only events not won by a UVA or Louisville swimmer were Emma Reaney’s 100 breaststroke (Notre Dame) and Briadam Herrera’s 3 meter (Miami men’s diving).
3) Repeat Winners: By the second night of the meet, two swimmers had already posted multiple event wins. The first to do so was Louisville’s Kylliainen, who won the 200 IM last night in a time of 1:55.72 (after Reaney’s DQ on her back to breast turn) and then claimed the 400 IM tonight by a margin of over two seconds (4:04.21). Kylliainen is the third seed in the 200 butterfly tomorrow, so she will be in the running for a triple win. The second repeat winner was UVA’s Smith. Smith won the 500 freestyle yesterday in 4:35.67 before placing first in tonight’s 200 freestyle in a time of 1:43.88. Smith is also the top seed for tomorrow’s 1650 freestyle by 33 seconds, so she has a very solid chance of winning a third individual event at ACC’s.
4) Worrell’s Historic 100 Butterfly: If you were blown away by Kelsi Worrell’s 100 butterfly time, you are not alone. Worrell’s 50.17 is the fourth fastest time ever swam in the 100 yard butterfly. The other three top swims belong to Natalie Coughlin (50.01) and Rachel Komisarz (50.10 twice). In addition to the historic nature of the time, it also broke the University of Louisville record, the ACC meet record, and the overall ACC conference record. Worrell is pressing against the 50 second barrier and has a great shot at breaking Coughlin’s American record in the near future.
5) ACC Records Falling: In addition to Worrell’s record-breaking swim, two other races tonight also slipped under previous ACC meet records. Tanja Kylliainen’s 400 IM was an ACC meet and conference record, breaking Claire Crippen’s 2011 meet record and Cari Blalock’s 2013 conference record. The UVA 400 Medley Relay (Bartholomew, Simon, Williamson, and Jones) also broke their own ACC meet record (Bartholomew, Simon, Williamson, Lloyd – 2014) by about a little over a second, but failed to achieve the conference record that UVA set in December (Bartholomew, Simon, Williamson, Thomas – 2014).
For a full recap of tonight’s session, check out the Day 3 Real-Time Finals Recap (here). Additional results can be found here. Prelims begin again tomorrow at 10 AM eastern.
Another example of what I wrote a few days ago. I go to swimswam this morning and I wanted to see the complete results od ACC day 3. Problem, the live recap isn’t already on the homepage anymore. Only a few hours after the end of day 3. So I have to make long and exhausting researches in the website to find it.
Back to swimming, another huge swim for Miss Worrell who is closer and closer to the legendary Natalie’s American and NCAA record. Hopefully she can swim as fast or even faster in a few weeks.
Miss Bartholomew is clearly not fully rested for that meet and that’s… Read more »
But thanks for the links above. 😉
Also of note – Courtney Bartholomew lead off UVA’s 400 medley relay in a 50.58 (fatser than either of her two individual 100s) – breaking Natalie Coughlin’s pool record – a fats swim for a not fully rested swim.
Finally someone realizes how amazing her swim was tonight. A 50.5 ?!?!?? this has to be the fastest time ever for not being fully rested, although that cant be proven… but still. She went almost a full second faster than earlier in the night and hell..the whole relay went faster. If they hit a good taper for NCAAs, this UVA squad will break 2-3 NCAA records.
Kylliainen was faster in the 200 IM than Reaney. The DQ had nothing to do with the win! She beat her to the wall int he free.