Caitlin Cooper Breaks ACC Meet Record in 50 Free

Braden Keith
by Braden Keith 0

February 15th, 2018 ACC, College, News

2018 WOMEN’S ACCS

Virginia senior Caitlin Cooper won the 50 free in the final individual swimming event on Thursday at the ACC Championships. Besides an NCAA Automatic Qualifying Time and a lifetime best, that swims breaks the ACC Championship Record of 21.71 set by UNC’s Caroline Baldwin in prelims. Baldwin took 2nd on Thursday in 21.89, and remains the overall ACC Record holder with her 21.48 from November.

Cooper and the rest of the Virginia women’s sprint crew have validated the reputation of new head coach Todd DeSorbo as a sprint guru. She’s now swum the 5 fastest times of her career this season, dropping her best time from a 22.08 set at last year’s ACC Championships – a time she almost beat at a dual meet in January.

Virginia put 4 women into the A-final of the 50 free, as compared to 2 for Louisville and no m ore than 1 for any other team:

  • 1st – Caitlin Cooper, 21.54
  • 3rd (tie) – Laine Reed, 22.07 (22.06 in prelims)
  • 6th – Morgan Hill, 22.21 (22.16 in prelims)
  • 8th – Dina Rommel, 22.43 (22.36 in prelims)

3 of those 4 A-finalists are seniors, and a look at their progressions over the last 4 seasons shows a definitive trend. While most of the group was already on an improvement curve under prior head coach Augie Busch, each of the 4 dropped more time in the 2017-2018 season than they did in the 2016-2017 season:

2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018
Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
Caitlin Cooper 22.37 22.16 22.08 21.54
Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
Laine Reed 24.38 23.88 23.05 22.06
11th 12th Freshman Sophomore
Morgan Hill 22.7 22.78 22.66 22.16
Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
Dina Rommel 23.36 22.89 22.65 22.36

 

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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