Zach Yeadon “Spun The Wheels A Little” in Prelims of the 500 at ACCs (Video)

2020 ACC MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 26th to Saturday, February 29th Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (29x, 5th-straight) (results)
• Streaming: ACC Network
  • Day 2 Finals
  • Day 3 Finals
  • Day 4 Finals
• Championship Central: Here
• Detailed Timeline: Here
• Psych Sheets: Here
• Live Results

Reported by Robert Gibbs.

Thursday

500 FREESTYLE – FINALS

• ACC championship record – 4:10.00, Matt McLean (Virginia), 2010
• ACC record – 4:09.13, Anton Ipsen (NC State), 2018
• 2019 champion – Eric Knowles (NC State), 4:12.13

1. Zach Yeadon (Notre Dame) – 4:10.39
2. Jack Walker (Virginia) – 4:11.93
3. Jack Hoagland (Notre Dame) – 4:12.15

Notre Dame junior Zach Yeadon is bouncing back after a shaky postseason last year. Tonight he knocked two off his lifetime best — which came from the 2018 ACC Champs — to win by well a second, touching in a 4:10.39 that moves him to #2 in the nation at the moment, behind only newly-minted US Open Record holder Kieran Smith.

A pair of freshmen rounded out the top three spots. Virginia’s Jack Walker didn’t overwhelm on last night’s 4×200 free relay, but tonight he swam a 4:11.93, over three seconds faster than his previous lifetime best from over a year ago.

Notre Dame’s Jack Hoagland also swam a lifetime best, touching in 4:12.15. Hoagland has been improving all season — he came out of high school with a best time of 4:23.21. Teammate Sadler McKeen finished 6th in 4:17.14.

NC State took 4th and 5th, with 4th going to freshman Ross Dant in 4:13.77 (also a lifetime best), while last year’s champion Eric Knowles ended up in 5th after swimming 4:15.70 today (4:15.26) this morning.

Last year it took a 4:16.0 to qualify for NCAAs in this event, so the top five should all have their NCAA tickets punched if they hadn’t yet.

Virginia Tech’s Antani Ivanov (4:18.17)  and UNC’s Dimitrios Dimitrious (4:18.82) ended up 7th and 8th.

Colton Paulson of Louisville won the B-final for the second straight year, touching in 4:16.75.

SCORES THROUGH DAY 2 (INCLUDING ALL DIVING POINTS)

1. NC State – 488
2. Virginia – 438
3. Florida State – 420.5
4. Louisville – 393
5. Virginia Tech – 359
6. North Carolina – 315
7. Notre Dame – 294.5
8. Duke – 258
9. Pitt – 223
10. Georgia Tech – 216
11. Miami (diving only) – 197
12. Boston College – 66

Wednesday

800 FREE RELAY – TIMED FINALS

• ACC championship record – 6:09.82, NC State (2017)
• ACC record – 6:05.31, NC State (2018)
• 2019 champion – Louisville (6:11.84)

1. Louisville – 6:12.02
2. NC State – 6:14.98
3. Florida State – 6:15.94

Louisville came back from the disqualification to win this event for the second year in a row, touching first by nearly three seconds with a time of 6:12.02. The Cardinals were a model of consistency, with all four men splitting between 1:32.4 and 1:33.4, and all relation exchanges between 0.10s and 0.19s. Nick Albiero led off with a 1:32.45 to put them in the lead from the get-go. Colton Paulson split 1:32.87 on the 2nd leg, and Andrej Barna and Sam Steele brought it home in 1:33.29 and 1:33.41, respectively.

NC State took 2nd in 6:14.98. Eric Knowles led off in 1:34.01, followed by Coleman Stewart (1:33.06), Hunter Tapp (1:33.06), then Noah Hensley (1:33.58). Hensley was the only returner from last year’s relay, where he split 1:34.00 and NC State finished 4th in 6:16.48.

Florida State jumped up two spots from last year’s rankings to take 3rd in 6:15.94. Freshman Peter Varjasi led off in 1:32.76 to put the Seminoles in 2nd early on. Jakub Ksiazek split 1:35.71, almost two seconds off his 1:33.83 anchor from last year, then another freshman, Mohamed Ghaffari went 1:33.48 on the 3rd leg, and Vladimir Stefanik anchored in 1:33.99. FSU’s time tonight was over two seconds faster than last year’s 5th place time of 6:18.35.

This was a fairly tight field, with less than a second separating 3rd place from 6th. Virginia Tech used a strong front half by Blake Manoff (1:33.69 leadoff) and Lane Stone (1:33.36) to take 4th in 6:16.36. UVA got three 1:34s, plus a 1:33.79 split by Sam Schilling, taking 4th in 6:16.68.  Notre Dame took 6th in 6:16.86, with anchor Zach Yeadon putting up the fastest split in the field with a 1:32.53. All of the top six teams were under the NCAA ‘A’ cut.