Scoring Update After 2 Diving Events at Men’s ACC Championships

The ACC (along with, notably, the Pac-12) have separate competitions for swimming, but combined competitions for diving. That is to say, while the ACC men won’t swim for 2 week still, their divers are in Atlanta this week competing in conjunction with the women’s meet. That means that early team scores are already available for the men’s competition.

The 1 meter event was held on Monday, where Notre Dame junior Joe Coumos had a finals score of 420 points, which earned the Irish 32 team points. Miami’s Briada Herrera took 2nd place, and UNC’s John Nyquist was 3rd.

Then, on Wednesday, they dove again – this time on the 3-meter. Pitt senior Dominic Giordano, who last year became Pitt’s first-ever NCAA Champion in swimming and diving in this event, added another conference title to his resume, with Herrera again taking 2nd and Nyquist 3rd.

From a team perspective, Virginia Tech has had the best diving crew in the conference in recent years, and they showed that again with an early lead. While they didn’t have any serious title contenders, their depth (4 scorers in both springboard events)  lifted them to an early lead.

The diving scores have to be taken with some perspective, in that some teams have 4 or more divers entered (UNC, Virginia Tech); some have 3 divers entered (Duke, Georgia Tech); and some have 2 (Virginia and NC State) (or even fewer). That’s important, because these diving spots count against the team’s roster total and for some teams reduce the number of scoring swimmers they can have on their roster. Each diver counts as 1/2 of a roster spot, regardless of how many events they compete in.

NC State in the past has not entered divers at all. This year, they put 2 divers in, and actually scored some points (they had no points last year) thanks to James Brady taking 23rd on the 3-meter and Harrison Mitchell finish 17th on the 1-meter.

Virginia’s diving crew is also noticeably in a down year as compared to the past. Last year, for example, they scored 116 diving points. This year, through 2 of 3 events, they have just 16. A lot of those points are shifting to a surging UNC diving crew, who already have scored 108 points as compared to just 94 in all three events last season.

Scoring update through Men’s Springboard Events

Note: Miami doesn’t have a men’s swimming team, so their diving points will be all of the points they score.