Matthew Styczen Hits Likely ACC 400 IM A-Final Time At Cavalier Invite Day 2

2022 Cavalier Invitational

• February 4-6, 2022
• Aquatics and Fitness Center, Charlottesville, VA
• Championship Format
• SCY
• Results on Meet Mobile as “2022 Cavalier Invitational”

The University of Virginia continued their annual Cavalier Invite today in Charlottesville. This meet typically serves as a combination of taper meet for swimmers who don’t make their conference team, and a tune-up for those who are, but are looking for some fast times before championships.

Unlike yesterday, most of the UVA roster swam in this morning’s prelims, and we already highlighted a few of the faster swims from that session, including Kate Douglass’ #3 all-time performance in the 200 breast.

We’ll come to some of the prelims swims momentarily, but perhaps the most impressive improvement of the day came from Cavalier freshman Matthew Styczen. The fact that he’s swimming a full complement of events this meet hints that he wasn’t slated to swim at ACCs, but if that was the case, he may have have forced his way on the ACC roster today. The first step came last night, when he improved his lifetime best in the 200 IM from 1:48.67 to 1:46.26, a time which would make the C-final at ACCs.

Tonight, he took an even bigger step forward in the 400 IM. He came into the meet with a personal best of 3:49.79 from December 2019. This morning, he took a second off of that best with a 3:48.65. He obliberated that time tonight with a 3:44.96. That time moves him to #3 in the ACC this season, would have easily made the A-final at last year’s ACC championships (it took a 3:46.84), and is less than a second away from what it took to score at last year’s NCAA Championships (although it should be noted that it wouldn’t have been fast enough to earn a NCAA invite in either 2019 or 2020).

Styczen is entered in the 200 breast tomorrow. He swam the 1650 at the Tennessee Invite, so it doesn’t look like the 200 breast has been a focus this season, but his lifetime best of 2:01.66 is about two seconds away from what it took to make the C-final at ACCs last year.

Of course, it’s not just the Cavaliers racing this weekend, and tonight, the women’s 400 IM turned into a great race between two Johns Hopkins teammates, senior Elaine Lipkin and freshman Taylor Rohovit. Lipkin built a three-second lead at the halfway point, but Rohovit totally erased that lead during the breaststroke leg, and actually moved ahead of Lipkin by 0.74s. Lipkin dug deep on the freestyle leg, though, and got her hand on the wall first, 4:24.79 to 4:25.10.

A pair of Pitt freshman also had a great race in the men’s 100 back. Ethan Neff went out fast, but Paul Lerro made up four-tenths on the second half of the race. Neff got his hand on the wall first, setting a new personal with a 49.71, while Lerro took 2nd in 49.91, also hitting a lifetime best.

Other Finals Winners:

• Konnar Klinksiek (UVA), 100 fly – 47.07
• Quinn Schaedler (UVA), 100 free – 1:49.41
• Jan Karolczak (UVA), 200 free – 1:36.14
• Maddie London (Pitt), 100 breast – 1:02.91
• Tristan Lin (John Hopkins), 100 breast – 56.11
• Abby Kapeller (UVA), 100 back – 54.06

We’ll wrap up with a few more notable results, mostly from this morning’s prelim sessions.

Even though Lexi Cuomo should be a lock for UVA’s ACC roster, she swam both prelims and finals in her main event, the 100 fly. This morning she went 52.99, then won tonight with a 52.47. Her lifetime best is a 50.65 from last year’s ACC championships, where she finished 2nd behind Douglass.

Teammate Reilly Tiltmann is primarily a backstroker, but she did the 100 back/fly double at last year ACCs. Today, she focused on the 100 fly, going 52.81 in prelims and opting out of finals.

Virginia sophomore Alex Walsh clocked a 58.36 in the 100 breast. That’s not far off of her lifetime best of 58.19 from 2017. Last season, Walsh finished 4th at ACCs with a 52.28.

Another Virginia sophomore, Matt Brownstead, went 1:34.68 in the 200 free this morning. That’s the 2nd-fastest time ever for Brownstead, who is the defending ACC champion in the 50 and the 100 freestyle, but who took his lifetime best from 1:36.15 to 1:33.16 leading off UVA’s 800 relay at NCAAs last year.