Courtesy: Florida State Athletics
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State men’s swimming and diving rising senior Vladimir Stefanik will be heading to the 2019 FINA World Championships after he captured three gold medals at the 2019 Slovak Open in Zilina, Slovakia last weekend.
Stefanik highlighted the meet by winning the 100m free by almost three seconds, touching with a new national record of 49.99. It was the first Slovak record set in any event since August of 2017.
The Varin native was victorious in the 50m free (22.95) and 200m free (1:52.68), which was also a two-second win.
Stefanik enjoyed his best season in the Garnet and Gold in 2018-19, helping the Noles set the school record in the 800 free relay at the ACC Championships before advancing to NCAAs. Stefanik also scored individually (18th) in the 100 free at ACCs, turning in a career best time at 43.14.
“I’m very excited for Vlad to make it to World Champs,” FSU head coach Neal Studd said. “He has worked really hard and deserves this payoff. It’s an amazing achievement that we now have four guys under 50 in the 100 LCM free.”
Stefanik will be joining rising sophomore Izaak Bastian (Bahamas), Will Pisani (Canada), Ida Hulkko (Finland), Tayla Lovemore (South Africa), Emir Muratovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Katrina Young (United States) at the meet.
The diving portion of will run from July 12-20 followed by swimming from July 21-28 at the Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center in Gwangju, South Korea.
