2020 VIRGINIA TECH INVITE
- February 7-9, 2020
- Hosted by Virginia Tech
- Short Course Yards
- Full Results
Friday night marked day 1 finals of the 2020 Virginia Tech Invite, where swimmers competed individually in the 500 free, 200 IM, and 50 free. There were also several time trials held. Virginia Tech’s Blake Manoff had a huge swim in the 200 free. The lone man in the race, Manoff dropped nearly 2.5 seconds off his lifetime best, clocking a 1:33.68. Also in time trials, Alex Slayton broke 55 for the first time in the 100 back (54.64). Hassler Carroll swam his first sub-50 in the 100 fly (49.25), dropping over a second.
As for the finals events, Virginia Tech won every race. The individual slate started with the 500 free, where LouLou Vos took the women’s title in 4:49.95. On the men’s side, Antani Ivanov claimed the win in 4:21.05.
Emily Meilus (2:05.16) narrowly clipped teammate Molly Sheffield (2:05.19) in the 200 IM. Meilus was over a second ahead on the front half, but Sheffield charged on the breast split to take the lead by nearly 2 seconds. Meilus kicked it in on the freestyle to catch her for the win. Sheffield was just a tenth shy of her lifetime best. The men’s race went to Samuel Tornqvist in 1:46.58.
Anna Landon took a tenth off her best time as she won the 50 free in 22.63. Aaron Boyd came up just a hundredth shy of his own lifetime best with a 20.28 win. It was his fastest swim since 2018 ACCs.
Could VT pass uva men this year??