UVA Men's Swimmers Finish Sixth At ACC Championships
March 2, 2017
Complete ACC Championships Results
ATLANTA – A podium finish from freshman John Whiteside (Fairfield, Conn.) highlighted the final day of competition as No. 14 Virginia finished sixth in the ACC Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatics Center on Thursday (March 2).
North Carolina State won its third consecutive ACC Championship with 1,297 points. Louisville finished second with 1,134 points, followed by Notre Dame in third with 923.5 points. The Cavaliers tallied 709.5 points in the sixth-place finish.
Whiteside turned in the second-best time in program history for Virginia in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle, touching in 42.86 to claim the silver medal. Whiteside put forth a burst of speed down the stretch to surge to the second-place finish for the Cavaliers. He then broke that time later, swimming the lead-off leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay in 42.76.
It was the culmination of a quick day in the 100-yard freestyle for Virginia as the Cavaliers had all four swimmers competing turn in their best time of the season for the event in the preliminaries. Whiteside would then go on to best that time twice more in the evening finals.
Senior Matt Lockman (Charlottesville, Va.) turned in the program’s sixth best time for the 100-yard freestyle in a swim-off for the B finals. Lockman’s time of 43.54 earned him the final spot in the B finals. The senior finished 16th overall in the event, finishing eighth in the B finals with a time of 44.66.
“The 400 freestyle relay was a great way to end the meet,” said Virginia head coach Augie Busch. “I’m proud of our men. Candidly, the meet fell short of our expectations, but there were still a lot of swims to be proud of this week. We are happy to be taking several people to NCAAs and swimming 4 of 5 relays, all of which have a chance to make scoring contributions. We look forward to moving on and trying to capitalize on those opportunities.”
Starting the night in the 1,650-yard freestyle, a trio of Cavaliers finished among the top 20 times for the event. Sam Magnan (Bethlehem, Pa.) finished 15th overall, touching in a time of 15:24.85, while Dan Golczewski (Bel Air, Md.) finished right behind him at 16th overall with a time of 15:27.33. Matthew Hrabchak finished 20th with a time of 15:31.80.
In the 200-yard backstroke, the Hoos had four swimmers competing across the three finals heats. Joe Clark (Worcester Park, Great Britain) finished eighth overall, touching in a time of 1:45.04 in the A finals. He was followed by Austin Quinn (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) who finished 15th overall after taking seventh in the B finals with a time of 1:44.10. Gust Kouvaris (Troy, Mich.) took second in the C finals with a time of 1:44.46, while Brendan Casey (Santa Monica, Calif.) finished third in the C finals with a time of 1:44.86.
Alex Albracht (Mission Hills, Kan.) swam in the 200-yard breaststroke, taking sixth in the C finals with a time of 2:00.00. He was the only swimmer in the finals of the event for the Cavaliers.
Virginia had three swimmers in the 200-yard butterfly with Ted Schubert (Ashland, Va.) and Zach Fong (Moorestown, N.J.) swimming in the A finals, while Kyle Ward (Bartlesville, Okla.) swam in the C finals. Schubert finished fourth overall, touching in a time of 1:43.45 for the third-best time in the event in program history. Fong finished eighth overall, touching in 1:44.99. Ward finished fifth in the C finals with a time of 1:47.01, his season-best in the event.
The Cavaliers closed the night with a fourth-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as the quartet of Whiteside, Luke Georgiadis (Jacksonville, Fla.), Ryan Baker (Arlington, Va.) and Lockman finished in a time of 2:52.40. It’s the third-best time in the event in program history.
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