Miami, Florida State Lead Men’s ACC Championships after Diving

2020 ACC – Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships

• Wednesday, February 26 – Saturday, February 29 (Diving February 19-22)
• Greensobo Aquatic Center, Greensbobo, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: NC State (5x) (results)
• Live results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets

As we turn the page on the ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, where the Virginia women won with a historic performance, it’s time to look forward to this coming weekend’s ACC men’s championship meet.

One piece of that puzzle is already slotted in: diving. As has been tradition for the ACC, men’s divers compete in week 1 with the women’s teams, so there is a baseline score heading into the swimming portion of the meet.

Each school is allowed to enter 3 divers in the meet (an exception is made for Miami, which doesn’t have a swimming program, and as such is not really contending for any places in the team competition). That standardization of entries has changed the scheme, where schools no longer have to make choices about how to balance swimming entries versus diving entries, where previously schools like Virginia Tech would go big in diving, and schools like NC State and Virginia would enter the swimming portion with a 100+ point deficit to make up, but knowing that they had way more entries in swimming events.

Thanks to investments in diving programs from places like NC State and Virginia, however, the conference is way more balanced coming out of the diving portion. In fact, the two leading contenders for the team title, NC State and Virginia, are separated by only 7 diving points, and the 2-7 teams are separated by only 25 diving points.

* – Miami doesn’t sponsor a men’s swimming program, so these diving points are all that they will score at the ACC Championships.

That means that the swimmers will determine the team champions at the meet.

The Swimulator, which focuses on scoring the championship meet based on season-best times so far, has NC State swimmers well out ahead of the conference in projected points in the pool, by 85 points ahead of Florida State, which has bounced back well after big graduations last season. Louisville had a very good women’s meet, as did Virginia, and if their men’s teams follow suit, they’re contenders as well.

But, the NC State divers held serve, and that puts their swimmers in position to win the men’s meet ahead of what should be a very interesting battle for 2nd place.

Swimulator ACC Men’s Swimming Projections:

Diving Event Winners

The first event of the meet, the men’s 3-meter, was won by NC State senior James Brady with a score of 392.65. Brady becomes the Wolfpack’s first ACC men’s diving champion since Andy Johnson won the 3-meter in 2000.

3-Meter Top 3:

1. James Brady, NC State – 392.65
2. Brodie Scapens, Miami – 388.95
3. Max Flori, Miami – 387.25

Joshua Davidson of Florida State, a junior, dominated the men’s 1-meter event with a score of 382.95 – more than 40 points ahead of runner-up Ruben Lechuga of Gerogia Tech. None of the top 3 from the 3-meter finished on the podium of the 1-meter as well.

1-Meter Top 3:

1. Joshua Davidson, Florida State – 382.95
2. Ruben Lechuga, Georgia Tech – 342.50
3. Noah Zawadzki, Virginia Tech – 337.50

The men’s platform event was utter domination by Miami, taking the top 4 placings and having nobody within 40 points of them. The next-best finisher was Virginia’s Walker Creedon. For Miami senior David Dinsmore, this was his 4th-straight conference title on platform.

Platform Top 3:

1. David Dinsmore, Miami – 510.35
2. Zachary Cooper, Miami – 343.65
3. Max Flory, Miami – 429.15