2015 ACC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Dates: Wednesday, Feb. 18 – Saturday, Feb. 21; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Location: Georgia Tech – Atlanta, GA
- Defending Champion: Virginia (7x) (results)
- Live Results
- Live Video (if available)
- Championship Central
CATCHING UP
Team Scores after two days
- Virginia – 486
- North Carolina – 458
- NC State – 383
- Louisville – 369
- Virginia Tech – 342
- Miami – 267
- Notre Dame – 251
- Florida State – 232
- Pitt – 218
- Duke – 207
- Georgia Tech – 99
- Boston College – 60
- Clemson (divers only) – 4
A busy day 3 at the 2015 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships will see the Virginia Cavaliers entering the session with a big lead and looking to expand that lead early in the 400 IM, where they hold three of the top five seeds, and the 200 free, where they have three of the top four seeds.
The Louisville Cardinals, however, also are expected to have a very good day, especially early with the top seeds in the 400 IM (Tanja Kylliainen) and 100 fly (Kelsi Worrell). The Cardinals are in a tight battle with NC State for 3rd right now. With no diving event, there’s an outside shot that they could even start to creep up on 2nd-ranked North Carolina.
Women’s 400 IM – Prelims
Louisville’s Tanja Kylliainen, with her NCAA berth effectively secured, Louisville senior Tanja Kylliainen worked her way into a top-seeded 4:09.29 in the women’s 400 IM, and will hold the center lane headed into Friday night’s finals.
The 2nd seed goes to North Carolina’s Emma Nunn, who made a big move to drop almost five seconds and secure a middle lane for the final in 4:10.72.
As compared to seeds, this was a good start to the day for the Tar Heels. They earned two swims in the A-final to just one for Virginia, despite the Cavaliers having three of the top five seeds. 3rd-seeded Shaun Casey slid to 16th in prelims.
Virginia Tech’s Fiona Donnelly moved up to take the 3rd seed in 4:12.234, followed by the one UVA A-finalist Kaitlyn Jones (4:12.69).
North Carolina State’s Addisynn Bursch is the 5th qualifier in 4:13.74, followed by Abby Chin (4:14.44) and the second Tar Heel Madison Burns (4:15.34). Notre Dame’s Katie Miller rounds out the A-Final with a 4:17.38.
Women’s 100 Fly – Prelims
Kelsi Worrell, who has been sharp all season long, swam a 50.38 on Friday morning to take the top seed in the women’s 100 fly – a time that breaks her own Louisville record and is the 5th-best performance ever recorded in yards.
She’s not the only one to have done so (A&M freshman Beryl Gastaldello did it at the SEC Championships), but that swim by Worrell is also faster than the time it took to win NCAA’s last season.
On either side of her in finals will be UNC’s Hellen Moffitt, who swam 51.98 in prelims, and Florida States’ Chelsea Britt, who was 52.17. It’s unlikely that anyone will challenge Worrell in finals so long as she holds serve, but with Ellen Williamson (52.21), Maggie Gruber (52.63), and Leah Goldman (52.82) all going sub-53, the race for 2nd should be exciting and competitive.
That swim for Moffitt is a new North Carolina school record in the event.
UNC junior Hannah Lincoln swam a 53.16 for 7th, and UVA’s Jen Markand swam 53.20 for 8th.
Women’s 200 Free – Prelims
Virginia’s Leah Smith, with a 500 free title already under her belt from this meet, has taken the top seed in the 200 free with a 1:44.63 in prelims. This race should be more competitive than the longer ones are/will be, with Florida State’s Kaitlyn Dressel (1:45.15) and UNC’s Danielle Siverling (1:45.53) both swimming season bests for the 2nd and 3rd seeds.
While NC State still isn’t deep enough to take the team title, they’ve been swimming as well as anyone this week, including Rachel Muller, who dropped three seconds to move up into 5th in the 200 free prelims with a 1:45.89: a three-second improvement.
Ally Hardesty gave UNC a second A-finalist with a 5th-qualifying 1:46.08, which Hanne Borgersen would also do for the Virginia women in 1:46.35 as the 8th seed.
In between them was a tie for 6th-fastest times in the heat, with Andrea Kneppers and Jessica Hespeler swimming equal 1:46.09’s.
Women’s 100 Breast – Prelims
Notre Dame senior Emma Reaney, chasing her own Meet Record from last year, is already sub-59 in prelims with a 58.87. That’s about two-tenths faster than she was last season.
Louisville’s Andrea Cotrell (59.49) and Virginia’s Laura Simon (59.51) took the 2nd and 3rd seeds, respectively. Simon has also been under 59 in her career, and was the runner-up last season.
Virginia Tech put two into the A-Final with the 4th qualifier Mackenzie Stewart (1:00.52) and the 5th qualifier Weronika Paluszek (1:00.54).
Sami Pochowski (1:00.90) and Natalie Pierce (1:00.93) are both within half-a-second of their school record at Florida State, and North Carolina State’s Kayla Brumbaum qualified 8th in 1:01.20.
Women’s 100 Back – Prelims
Virginia’s Courtney Bartholomew will challenge the record for the all-time fastest 100 yard backstroke at NCAA’s, and while there’s little motivation for her to go full-bore after that time here, she was still well out in front of the field in prelims with a 51.21.
UNC’s Hellen Moffitt will once again be locked in a battle for 2nd, as she swam a 52.16 in prelims to break another North Carolina School Record: her second of the day.
That fight will be primarily with NC State’s Alexia Zevnik (52.18), the 3rd qualifier.
Behind her are a pair of Virginia Tech Hokies, Klaudia Nazieblo (53.02) and Holly Harper (53.07); followed by a pair of Seminoles, Chelsea Britt (53.10) and Bianca Spinazzola (53.17).
UNC’s Megan Bestor once again gives the Tar Heels two swimmers into the A-Final, qualifying 8th in 53.21. That finish was a potentially-big point swing, as she out-touched Virginia’s Emily Dicus (53.25) for the last spot in the championship heat.
Clemson diving: What a flop – a few years ago Clemson cut swimming, but opted to keep a “womens diving program – trying to emulate Miami which places top 20 in NCAA most years based on diving alone. This year Clemson has 11 divers – the highest placer of which placed 27th in the 1m prelims; 22nd in the 3m prelims – clearly their strategy has failed – with all their football success of late, and the ACC’s financial windfall from TV contracts, its time to put public pressure on them to bring back swimming.
Cool to see the women’s 100 fly wake up this season. We have now a lot of girls able to swim 50 something.
Will someone finally break the very old Natalie Coughlin’s NCAA record?
Can Kelsi Worrell do it tonight? Perhaps she gave everything in prelims. I don’t know. Anyway she has the potential to do it very quickly.
I see Kendyl Stewart of USC more as a long course swimmer but she can also swim close to that record.
Marne Erasmus too.
And of course Béryl Gastaldello of Texas A&M.
Perhaps also Janet Hu.
But the girl with the most short course potential in the future to break that record is crazy… Read more »
Bobo,
Worrell is going to go 49 – either tonight or at NCAA’s. Mark it down. She is your NCAA champ.
Also, there is no such thing as giving “too much” at prelims. The races are 8 hours (min) apart. If you cruise though prelims at NCAA’s you will find yourself in the B final (or no final at all). Cruising though a prelim swim is something you do often enough you will find yourself out of finals at the great meets (i.e. a slow prelim for Worrell will have her out of the running for NCAA’s – you said yourself there are lots of 50. speed girls or her real goal of going to the Olympics.) She better learn… Read more »
Why can’t the ACC just have some live results that work? How embarassing. No live video of prelims and no live results of prelims.
Recruits looking for ACC results go straight to SEC and BIG10 because the ACC has made any results unobtainable. Thank god for SwimSwim Live
In the past it’s been better. I have live results here:
http://www.theacc.com/page/championship_c-swim_livestats
It’s strange that it looks like the normal live results page inside another one though.
Shaun Casey is not rested shaved or tapered
contacted GT aquatic staff for non-updating live results. They responded right back that they are working on the problem and should have it fixed within the hour.
Worrell 50.38. Smash!
very impressive time – she could be going for the American record tonight – would be great to have an American record broken at the ACC meet again this year – (Reaney of ND did so last year in the 200 breast) – the ACC women’s meet is getting to a level where it rivals the SEC and PAC12 championships.
WahooSwimFan – I think you are stretching it a bit to say that the ACC is rivaling the SEC and PAC12 – One or two great swims or swimmers does not equal conferences with the depth of SEC or PAC12s. Lets just wait for the Big Dance to see how the ACC fares. The addition of ND and Louisville as well as the surge in NC State over the past 3 years has helped, but the ACC still has a long way to go.
I agree with you on the depth aspect and don’t want to nickle and dime you on the ‘one or two great swims’, but the ACC could realistically see 4 or 5 individual NCAA winners this year with Worrell, Bartholomew, Smith, and Reaney (x2), and American records by all (except Smith – she’d have to settle for the NCAA record because of some high schooler named Katie)