Cavaliers Looking to Repeat as ACC Champions

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February 19, 1999

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Through one day and six events of the 1999 ACC Women’s Swimming and Diving Champions here Thursday, the University of Virginia appears poised to repeat as Atlantic Coast Conference champions. The Cavaliers won four of five swimming events and finished the first night of competition with a 45-point edge over second-place North Carolina. Junior Rebecca Cronk was the driving force for the Cavaliers. She posted a career-best and an all-time Virginia record time of 22.53 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to finish first in the finals and become an NCAA automatic qualifier.

Cronk was also a part of the UVa 400-yard medley relay that finished first with a Cavalier and ACC record time of three minutes, 39.28 seconds. That time automatically qualifies the quartet of Cronk, Meghan Iffland, Danica Wizniuk and Meg McCubbins for the NCAA championships and was nearly four seconds better than the previous school record.

Cronk, Iffland, McCubbins and Julie Gehm also took first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:31.58 – another UVa and ACC record time. With that time, the relay team becomes an NCAA provisional qualifier. The previous school record was 1:42.77 set last season. Emily Carrig also took first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:49.43. Wizniuk and Kate Slonaker finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200-yard individual medley – the only swimming event on the day not captured by the Orange and Blue. In the one-meter diving competition, Courtney Colbert and Ashley Smith finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

As a team, the Cavaliers amassed 252 points followed by UNC (207), Florida State (147), Maryland (143), Clemson (115), North Carolina State (110) and Duke (24). Competition continues here Friday and Saturday at the University of Maryland.