Mallory Comerford on Final ACCs and Future After NCAAs (Video)

2019 ACC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

Louisville senior and multi-time NCAA and USA Swimming national champion Mallory Comerford electrified fans with her performances at the 2019 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.

In Greensboro, Comerford won individual titles in the 500 free (4:34.63), the 200 free (1:41.60), and the 100 free (46.57), as well as a relay victory in the 400 freestyle relay, where she split a 46.53. Comerford also picked up two second-place finishes in the 800 free relay, delivering a 1:41.01 anchor leg, and the 200 free relay, splitting a 21.17.

After her final NCAA Championships in March, Comerford is looking forward to competing in long course and preparing for the summer and the 2019 World Championships in South Korea, where she is slated to swim the 100 free, and likely the 400 and 800 freestyle relays, with likely berths on the 400 medley relay, as well as the mixed 400 free relay and mixed 400 medley relay.

Live recaps reported by Robert Gibbs:

500 FREE FINAL

  1. Mallory Comerford (Louisville) – 4:34.63
  2. Paige Madden (Virginia) – 4:38.13
  3. Kathleen Moore (NC State) – 4:39.10

Mallory Comerford claimed in the post-race interview that she just did her last 500 ever, and if that’s the case, she went out in style, blasting a 4:34.63 to win by over three seconds, pick up a NCAA ‘A’ cut, and put up the fastest time in the country. That’s also a best time for Comerford, whose previous best of 4:35.79 came from the 2017 Winter Nationals.

If Comerford and Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero stick with the apparent decision that Comerford is done with this event, then Comerford almost certainly go after the 50 free, where she’s likely to at least make the A-final, while being able to save some more energy for the 200 free and 400 medley relays that same session.

UVA’s Paige Madden continues to whittle away at her personal best time, dropping almost a second from her prelim time to grab 2nd for the Cavaliers in 4:38.13.

NC State’s Kathleen Moore was the final woman to break 4:40, taking 3rd in 4:39.10. The Wolfpack also got 5th and 6th place finishes from Tamila Holub and Anna Jahns, meaning that they slipped a bit from the projected score based on prelims finishes, but not by much.

200 FREE FINALS

  1. Mallory Comerford (Louisville) – 1:41.60
  2. Paige Madden (UVA) – 1:44.03
  3. Megan Moroney (UVA) – 1:44.61

Mallory Comerford seems to have adopted a strategy this week of taking it easy in prelims, and then dropping the hammer in finals. She was in lane 6 tonight after putting up the 4th-fastest time this morning, but no one was even close to her tonight. She was the only woman to hit the 100 mark under 50 seconds, and powered all the way through to win by nearly 3.5 seconds, setting a new meet record in the process.

Virginia picked up a total of 103 points in the event, led by Paige Madden and Megan Moroney, who finished 2nd and 3rd with times of 1:44.03 and 1:44.62.

There were no freshmen in the A-final, but Duke freshman Melissa Pish put up a 1:45.08 to win the B-final.

With four women in the A-final, UVA jumped ahead of Louisville and closed the gap on NC State, but the Wolfpack still have a 63 point margin roughly halfway through the session.

100 FREE FINALS

  1. Mallory Comerford (Louisville) – 46.57
  2. Morgan Hill (UVA) – 47.46
  3. Ky-lee Perry (NC State) – 47.50

Mallory Comerford took down her own meet record in her final individual swim of her ACC career. Comerford looked to be in control the entire race and touched in 46.57, knocking 0.08s off her meet record of 46.65 from last year.

NC State’s Ky-lee Perry was in 2nd after the first 50, but UVA’s Morgan Hill reeled Perry in by splitting 24.56 to 25.08 over the second half the race, and touching in 47.46 to Perry’s 47.50.

The team standings look to be pretty well solidified at his point. NC State has a 77 point lead over Virginia that’s essentially insurmountable at this point, barring a relay disqualification (and even that might not be enough). Louisville and Notre Dame are locked into 3rd and 4th, respectively. There’s a chance that Florida State could move up or down one spot, but other than that, we shouldn’t see much change over the final three events.

Final Team Scores:

1. North Carolina State University 1353
2. Virginia, University of 1282
3. Louisville, University of 1146
4. Notre Dame, University of 909.5
5. Duke University 764
6. Florida State University 727
7. North Carolina, University of, 700.5
8. VA Tech 477.5
9. Georgia Institute of Technolog 360
10. Pittsburgh, University of 334
11. University of Miami (Florida) 293.5
12. Boston College 154

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tea rex
5 years ago

Crazy to think she came into college at 50.1, 1:47, and 4:53.

About Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson originally hails from Clay Center, Kansas, where he began swimming at age six.  At age 14 he began swimming club year-round and later with his high school team, making state all four years.  He was fortunate enough to draw the attention of Kalamazoo College where he went on to …

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