Women’s 200 Medley Relay
Kicking off this meet, consider it a definite that every pool record at the new Christianburg Aquatics Center will go down – in this first 200 medley, the top 9 relays each broke the pool record.
The squad that will emerge with the record at the end of the race is the Virginia group of Charlotte Clarke, Kelly Flynn, Meredith Cavalier, and Lauren Perdue in 1:39.03. Cavalier’s 50 fly split of 23.99 showed why she’s the most valuable swimmer for the Cavaliers this year – she can range in events from the 50 fly to the 100 free to the 200 back, and swim very well in all of them.
North Carolina took 2nd in 1:39.64. Freshman Nikki Barczak seems to be the option to hold down a struggling anchor leg on these medleys, and she swam a respectable 22.48.
The shock was Miami in 3rd in 1:40.10. They have a gaping hole in this medley relay on the backstroke leg, and after an admirable 26.9 leadoff by Hannah Kling, they were in 2nd-to-last place. But the Hurricanes’ last three legs are the best in the league, and they showed that in this race. They were more than a second faster than anyone else (Virginia) over the last 150 yards, and were able to claw back to a 3rd-place performance. The key leg was a 23.79 butterfly from freshman Lucy Worral, who is the next big thing for the ‘Canes. Kelsi Hall swam a 21.69 anchor, which was easily the best anchor.
That time probably won’t get them to NCAA’s, but it is a great kickoff to the meet.
Women’s 800 Free Relay
The Cavaliers made it two-for-two with another victory in the 800 free relay, with a winning time of 7:03.56. When posting that time up against the SEC, it would have put Virginia 3rd. That’s a great spot for them to be in headed into NCAA’s, and is a testament to an awesome anchor from Lauren Perdue in 1:43.59.
North Carolina took 2nd in 7:06.91.
In 3rd and 4th were a pair of massive school records, and exciting finishes, from bottom-half teams. North Carolina State, under first-year head coach Braden Holloway, is easily outswimming their pedigree, and took 3rd in 7:14.79. That cuts five seconds off of their school record. In 4th was Georgia Tech in 7:15.43, which is a three-second school best.
Florida State was 5th in 7:16.97, which is a bit of a disappointing result – I expected them to be closer to a 7:10.
Standings
1. Virginia 80
2. North Carolina 68
3. North Carolina State 56
4. Florida State 54
5. Maryland 51
6. Virginia Tech 48
6. Georgia Tech 48
8. Duke 47
9. Miami 46
10. Clemson 38
11. Boston College 24
As someone who follows the ACC very closely, this is a very down year for the women when it comes to swimming. UNC is having a difficult time plugging positions on the team the did not expect to have this year in Lane and Smith. UVA is young, very young and is depending on a bunch of underclassmen to carry the load this year and their best swimmer is swimming thru some pain. This should have been the year when someone jumped up and took the crown from them, but for various reasons it doesn’t look like that will happen.
In the coming years, it looks like UNC and UVA are both having great recruiting classes and have solid underclassmen… Read more »
Thank you for clarification nostradamus, i do agree that the big 10 deserves alot more press.
@john, I’m not dissing the big10 at all! I agree, it is an extremely deep conference. I think you should re-read my post. What I was going for, which you missed, was that for all the hooplah and press that the conference gets because of UVA/UNC, their conference as a whole (and even those two teams) doesn’t stack up well against the big10. I think the Big10 doesn’t get as much press as they deserve, and I think the ACC is over-hyped.
Does anyone have any insight into this cryptic quote by UVA’s coach regarding Lauren Perdue?
“There aren’t many people who can understand the physical difficulties she has been under the last eight months,” Bernardino said of Perdue. “We don’t talk about it. She loves her team and she loves to anchor her relays.”
@nostradamus- i dont think you should be dising the big 10. Besides UVA/UNC i would argue that it is deeper than the ACC. More teams from big 10 will go to NCAAs than the ACC…that is just a disrespectful remark towards the big 10
the 800 relay was MUCH better than the 200 medley….the conference was awful in the 2medley. big east and many other conferences can go that fast for sure….
1:39 is extremely slow… sitting 13th right now, and thats without the pac12 results yet… No ACC team in the 200 medley at NCAA’s, ouch!!! 7:03 isn’t that hot either. Would have gotten third at both the Big10 and Sec meet. For how much chatter UNC/UVA get, you’d think that the ACC would be faster than the Big10…