The Virginia Cavaliers kicked off 2016 with dominating doubles from Austin Quinn and Courtney Bartholomew on day 1 of a two-day clash with Notre Dame.
Both Quinn and Bartholomew won the same combo: the 200 IM and 200 backstroke.
For Quinn, the IM was the toughest test. The junior trailed Notre Dame’s Kevin Bradley by a tenth at the 150 mark, but barreled home on freestyle to win 1:49.38 to 1:49.85. A few events later, Quinn was 1:46.98 to win the 200 back by a much wider margin.
Bartholomew actually nabbed four wins on the night. Her 1:59.35 in the 200 IM led a 1-2-3-4 charge of Cavs, with Jen Marrkand (2:00.28) in the runner-up spot. Bartholomew then crushed the 200 back field in 1:55.21.
She also anchored the winning 200 free relay and went 53.66 in a 100 backstroke leading off the winning 400 medley relay.
Marrkand was the flyer on that relay (53.24) and also won the 200 fly individually (1:57.29) for the defending ACC Champs.
Virginia swept all the individual events on the day with the exception of diving. Also winning big for the women were the usual suspects: Leah Smith in the 500 free (4:39.75) and Laura Simon in the 100 breast (1:01.09).
Notre Dame swept the women’s diving events, with Lindsey Streepey taking 3-meter (322.95) and Emma Gaboury 1-meter (282.07).
For the men, the visiting Fighting Irish swept the relays and won the final two individual races of the day. Freshman Tabahn Afrik came up big in the 100 free, taking the win in 44.69, and sophomore Justin Plaschka was right behind (44.74).
That sprint free prowess helped Notre Dame crush the field in the 200 free relay, with Plaschka leading off in 20.43 and Afrik splitting 20.30. The best split on that relay actually came from anchor Daniel Speers, though, at 20.02. Reed Fujan was 20.54 as the team went 1:21.29.
Matthew Grauslys also won the 200 fly (1:47.39) for Notre Dame before the Irish took the 400 medley relay to close the night.
Outside of Quinn’s double, Virginia got wins from Sam Magnan in the 500 free (4:28.18) and Murat Yildirim in the 100 breast (56.23). Diver Carl Buergler also doubled, taking 1-meter (324.45) and 3-meter (376.65).
I wouldn’t mind seeing the NCAA converting Olympic year to LCM. I think Bartholomew has so much talent, she might have been better off skipping this year and exclusively training LCM to try to make the US Olympic Team.
It’s a tough call with Franklin, Coughlin, Beisel, and the other Cal girls, but on a good day, I could see Bartholomew making the team.