Virginia Tech men top Kentucky with strong seniors, Hokie women sweep Richmond

The defending men’s ACC Champion Virginia Tech H2Okies knocked off SEC foe Kentucky Saturday, while the Virginia Tech women swept Richmond.

The H2Okie men were led by their veterans, as the senior class accounted for 9 of the team’s 10 individual wins, including doubles from Collin Higgins, Morgan Latimer  and Jared Butts. The women got triple-individual victories from Klaudia Nazieblo and Jessica Hespeler.

Full results

Men’s Meet

The H2Okie men continue to look to their strong senior class for production as they shoot to defend their 2014 conference title in the ACC. Three of those seniors doubled up Saturday, as Collin Higgins, Morgan Latimer and Jared Butts combined for six of the senior class’s 9 individual wins.

Higgins got on the board first, taking the 100 back in 49.01. He was the only guy under 50 seconds. Higgins came back to complete a backstroke sweep later on, going 1:48.30 to dominate the 200.

Latimer, meanwhile, got both of his wins later. He first paced the 100 free in the meet’s second swimming session, going 45.77. A short while later, Latimer was back in the pool, going 49.19 to take the 100 fly.

Also doubling for Virginia Tech was the diver Butts, who swept 1-meter (379.65) and 3-meter (335.40).

Other senior winners included Owen Burns (200 free, 1:39.41), Harrison Cefalo (100 breast, 58.26) and CJ Fiala (50 free, 20.79).

The 400 medley relay was an all-seniors affair, as Higgins, Cefalo, Latimer and Burns combined to go 3:19.08, getting a 48.97 leadoff from Higgins and a 48.39 fly leg from Latimer.

In the 200 free relay, sophomore Brandon Fiala joined Latimer, Kevin Hunt and CJ Fiala to go 1:22.75.

Kentucky was at the far opposite end of the spectrum, getting all of its wins from freshmen and sophomores. Rookie Isaac Jones went 4:33.01 to take the 500 free, and also contributed to a 1-2 sweep in the 400 IM. He was second there behind sophomore teammate Brandon Flynn.

Flynn had a great day for Kentucky as well, adding a runner-up finish in the 200 breast to his 400 IM win. Flynn was 2:05.79 in that breaststroke race, nearly stealing a win from Virginia Tech’s Justin Edwards (2:05.67).

Also winning for Kentucky were sophomores Drew Aviotti (1650 free, 15:34.01) and Kyle Higgins (200 fly, 1:49.93).

Final Score: VT: 186 – Kentucky: 114

Women’s Meet

The Virginia Tech women put together a clean 16-for-16 sweep of their races (not counting exhibitioned events), getting six total individual wins from Jessica Hespeler and Klaudia Nazieblo.

Hespeler, a sophomore, put together an impressive double early in the meet. First, she paced the 1000 free, going 10:18.32. Just one event later, Hespeler got back on the blocks and crushed the 200 free field with a 1:52.54, giving her two wins before any other woman was even on the board once.

Hespeler would come back at the end of the meet to pace the 500 free in 5:00.40, though the race was exhibitioned.

Immediately after Hespeler’s 1000 free/200 free double, the Polish freshman Nazieblo hit the pool, pacing the 100 back in 55.47. She would go on to complete the backstroke sweep with a 2:03.67 in the 200, and added a 55.08 win in the 100 fly a few events later.

Nazieblo’s Polish countrywoman Weronika Paluszek also won twice, sweeping the breaststrokes. Paluszek was 1:03.68 to lead a 1-2-3 of the 100 breast and went 2:16.46 to help Virginia Tech repeat the feat in the 200 breast.

The H2Okies went 1-2 in the 200 medley relay, getting a 1:42.81 from Nazieblo, Alyssa Bodin, Maggie Gruber and Margaret Parcell for the win.

Hespeler led the 200 free relay to victory, splitting 51.71 swimming second. Also on the squad were Gabrielle Bishop, Adriana Grabski and Parcell, and the crew went 3:29.85.

Grabski would win twice, going 24.10 to touch out Parcell in the 50 free and then 52.06 to pace the 100. Also doubling was diver Kelli Stockton, who scored 309.70 on 1-meter and 357.70 on 3-meter.

Other winners for VT included Laura Schwartz in the 200 fly (2:06.03) and the 200 fly runner-up Fiona Donnelly in the 200 IM (2:05.45).

Richmond picked up three runner-up finishes. Senior Meredith Gouger was second to Hespeler in the 1000 free (10:30.62), junior Kelly Yang second behind Nazieblo in the 100 fly (56.08) and freshman Annie Lane second in the 200 IM (2:06.69) behind Donnelly.

Final Score: VT: 184 – Richmond: 104

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About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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