2017 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships
- Monday, February 13 – Thursday, February 16
- Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Standard Time)
- Prelims 10AM / Finals 6PM
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- List of Events
- Live on ACC Network Extra 6 – 8:30PM
University of Louisville’s Mallory Comerford reached yet another milestone in her amazing sophomore season last night by breaking the 47-second barrier in the 100 freestyle to clock a new ACC Championships and overall ACC record. Comerford, who blasted a 47.00 in prelims, came back in finals to post a 46.75, just missing the pool record of 46.70 set by Georgia’s Olivia Smoliga at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Last night’s swim actually comes as the second time Comerford broke the ACC record in the 100 freestyle, as she also cleared the old record of 47.30 set in 2016 by Kelsi Worrell with her swim in the prelims. Comerford led the race from start to finish, and was the only woman to come home in the final 50 in under 24 seconds.
| Swimmer | 1st 50 | 2nd 50 | Final Time |
| Mallory Comerford (Prelims) |
22.98 | 24.02 | 47.00 |
| Mallory Comerford (Finals) |
22.82 | 23.93 | 46.75 |
Comerford’s swim last night makes her the 6th-fastest performer of all-time in the 100 yard freestyle, only trailing Olivia Smoliga (46.70), Missy Franklin (46.66), Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (46.61), Abby Weitzeil (46.29), and American Record holder Simone Manuel (46.09). For now, Comerford also holds the fastest time in the NCAA this season with her swim last night, though with Smoliga yet to swim the 100 free at the SEC Championships, and the PAC-12 Championships coming up next weekend where Manuel, Weitzeil, and Lia Neal will all swim the race, standings may yet change before the NCAA Championships next month.
On Wednesday, Comerford destroyed the 200 freestyle meet and conference records with a 1:41.70, finishing over a second-and-a-half ahead of Olympic gold medalist Leah Smith. Though Comerford bested Smith in the 200, Smith rocked a new pool record and was just off her ACC record time in the 500, clocking a 4:30.81 to get to the wall seven seconds ahead of Comerford.
At the conclusion of the meet, Comerford helped the University of Louisville to a third-place overall finish behind champions NC State and runner-up University of Virginia.
What a progression since last year’s same meet over that distance!
Now she’s clearly in the conversation to make the US 4X100 free relay team next summer.
It doesn’t look too hard to be one of the six on 4×100 free relay. On the other hand Ledecky couldn’t make it at OT last year. What American team needs actually in Budapest is not another 53 mid-high swimmer but four 52sec splits to compete with Australians. Will Mallory do it? I wish she could.
Leah Smith. Though Comerford bested Smith in the 200, Smith rocked a new pool record and was just off her ACC and NCAA record time in the 500, clocking a 4:30.81
I understood Ledecky is the NCAA record holder????