Karasek, Houser Go 1-2 in 200 Individual Medley
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CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – Senior David Karasek and junior Matt Houser went 1-2 in the 200 individual medley Thursday to highlight day two of the 2012 Men’s ACC Championships. The meet, which runs through Saturday, is being held at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, Va.
Sophomore Jan Daniec joined Karasek and Houser as all-conference performers after he tallied a second-place finish in the 500 freestyle.
Through seven events, Virginia has moved into second place with 225 points and trails North Carolina (245.5). Florida State sits in third with 214 points.
Karasek and Houser both had strong freestyle legs in the 200 individual medley and were able to chase down Virginia Tech’s Greg Mahon, who led most of the race. Karasek won the event in 1:44.25 to set a Virginia school record while Houser touched in 1:45.90. Karasek bested Houser’s previous school record of 1:44.51 set at the NCAA Championships last season.
“I just wanted to win for my team and get everybody fired up,” Karasek said. “We have to keep working with everything we have. When I saw Houser touched after me, that got me even more fired up.”
Freshman David Ingraham finished in 1:47.72 to win the consolation heat of the 200 individual medley and place ninth overall. Additionally, Taylor Grey (1:48.51) was 11th and Nick Montes de Oca (1:49.10) took 14th. All five of UVa’s times in the event were NCAA ‘B’ standards.
“Nick did a great job moving up and David (Ingraham) moved from second to first in that heat,” Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. “It was a lifetime best for him. We had a great performance from both Matt and David (Karasek). That was the first time David had ever swum that race at the ACC Championships. We have seen the potential in him over the course of the last couple of years and pretty much made the decision at the beginning of this year to change his first day event.
“It was one of the prettiest swims I have ever seen, especially the way he handled his pacing,” Bernardino said of Karasek. “He didn’t panic when he was multiple seconds behind at the halfway point. He built through his breaststroke and was untouchable coming home in the freestyle. Matt was tremendously courageous. He dug down deep and came on to win a close battle for second. That type of fight that those two men exhibited is what it’s going to take for us if we hope to overcome the hole that we are in right now.”
Daniec touched in 4:20.78 to earn All-ACC accolades in the 500 freestyle event with his second-place finish. Junior Nathan Vredeveld (4:23.65) and sophomore Parker Camp (4:26.26) placed fifth and seventh, respectively. Sophomore Bradley Phillips hung on to his ninth-place spot from the morning and touched in 4:26.60; all four times were NCAA ‘B’ marks.
“It was nice to have Brad Phillips hang on to ninth place because that was very critical in terms of points,” Bernardino said. “I thought Jan did a great job finishing runner-up to a very fine swimmer from Florida State. Nathan moved up a few spots which was very important. I don’t know how much swimming on the relay took out of Parker but we needed him there and he did a great job.”
Senior Peter Geissinger recorded a time of 20.13 to finish eighth in the 50 freestyle. Junior Tom Barrett went 20.24 out of the consolation final and earned a 13th-place finish.
“Obviously we wanted Peter to be better than eighth but he got into the finals and that’s a crapshoot of a race,” Bernardino said.
Geissinger, Barrett, Karasek and Camp teamed up for a fifth-place finish to open the evening in the 200 freestyle relay. The Cavaliers touched in 1:18.91.
“We put together a decent 200 free relay but we were outtouched on the last stroke,” Bernardino said. “Fifth kept us in the hunt in terms of points.”
Day three of the ACC Championships continues at 11 a.m. Friday with preliminaries in the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
2012 ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships
Feb. 22-25 | Christiansburg, Va.
After 7 Events
1. North Carolina
245.5 2. VIRGINIA
225 3. Florida State
214 4. Virginia Tech
164 5. NC State
127 6. Clemson
123.5 7. Georgia Tech
108 8. Duke 85 9. Maryland
75 10. Boston College
42 11. Miami (diving only) 15