Virginia Finishes Second At Women’s ACC Swimming and Diving Championships
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Virginia women’s swimming and diving team and men’s diving team concluded the ACC Championships on Saturday (Feb. 23) at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with the Cavalier women finishing as the conference runner-up. The finish marks the 12th consecutive year that the women have placed in the top two at the ACC Championships.
NC State won the conference championship with 1,353 points. The Cavaliers finished second with 1,282 points, while Louisville finished third with 1,146 points. Additionally, Virginia won a point in the Commonwealth Clash, the matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Virginia concluded the meet with three ACC titles with wins from junior Morgan Hill (Olney, Md.) in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, and a relay win in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The Cavaliers recorded 33 All-ACC honors during the meet, including seven during tonight’s competition.
“I can’t begin to say how proud I am of the way our women battled to the very end,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “The final session of the meet tonight was our best and we ended on a high note. We will likely have upwards of 15 women qualify for the NCAAs, and many of them just freshmen and sophomores. We are such a young team, still learning and improving quickly, and I believe they learned a lot this weekend. This team is much stronger than we were six months ago, and even a week ago. They’ll be a team hard to beat in the future.”
Three Cavaliers earned All-ACC honors in individual events on the final day of competition as redshirt junior Megan Moroney (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Emma Seiberlich (Audubon, Pa.) finished second and third, respectively, in the 200-yard backstroke. Moroney recorded a time of 1:51.98, while Seiberlich swam a time of 1:52.54 to move up to sixth on UVA’s all-time best times list. Hill recorded another podium finish, placing second in the 100-yard freestyle. Her time of 47.46 topped her school record in the event and ranks seventh in the NCAA.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Moroney, Hill, senior Eryn Eddy (Loveland, Colo.) and sophomore Kyla Valls (Miami, Fla.) earned All-ACC honors with a third-place finish and a time of 3:12.97. The swim is the fourth fastest in program history.
Rounding out a big event for the Cavaliers, sophomore Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.) finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:53.18 as sophomore Abby Richter (Henderson, Nev.) reached the wall with a time of 1:54.52 for eighth place.
Freshman Julia Menkhaus (Charlotte, N.C.) captured UVA’s fifth-fastest time in school history in the A-final of the 200-yard butterfly. Her time of 1:55.16 placed her fourth at the meet.
Senior Vivian Tafuto (Hummelstown, Pa.) finished fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke, recording UVA’s third-best time in program history at 2:09.77, while Eddy placed eighth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.86.
Additionally, freshman Kaki Christensen (Darien, Conn.) recorded the school’s second-best time in program history in the B finals of the 200-yard breaststroke, where she topped the heat and finished ninth overall with a time of 2:08.85.
On the women’s 1m board, junior Sydney Dusel (Naperville, Ill.) scored 258.05 points for 10th place.
Freshman Walker Creedon (Cary, N.C.) led the men’s diving team with an 11th-place finish and a score of 281.20, while junior Bryce Shelton (Vienna, Va.) finished 14th with a score of 269.85.
“Hats off to our staff as well, as they all do a tremendous job of preparing our athletes to be their best,” DeSorbo said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of coaches to work with every day or a better group of athletes. The future is going to be unbelievable, but for now we will get prepared for the NCAAs in Austin next month.”
The Virginia men’s swimming team will compete at the ACC Championships next week as the four-day meet begins on Wednesday (Feb. 27) at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. The men’s diving team scored 82 points during this week’s competition to rank the Cavaliers seventh in the team standings heading into next week.
Commonwealth Clash
The ACC Championships serve as the women’s swimming and diving matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash. The Commonwealth Clash presented by Virginia529 is a head-to-head, points-based competition between the athletic teams at University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. The Commonwealth Clash encourages a friendly, statewide rivalry between the two schools across all school-sponsored sports with 21 individual event points on the line. The school that accumulates 11 points or more will be crowned the winner and take home the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash trophy. Visit www.TheCommonwealthClash.com for more information and updated standings.