The University of Louisville women’s swimming and diving team moved into third place on the strength of a gold and two silvers in the third day of racing Wednesday night at the 2017 ACC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the McAuley Aquatics Center on the campus of Georgia Tech.
NC State took the lead in team scores with 776.5, Virginia was second with 750, followed by Louisville’s 674.5, North Carolina (665), Duke (513.5), Virginia Tech (485), Florida State (457.5), Notre Dame (428.5), Miami (294.5), Pitt (294), Georgia Tech (256), Boston College (122) and Clemson (73).
In the 400-IM, Virginia Tech’s Reka Gorgy broke ahead on the backstroke and never looked back, winning in 4:04.97. UofL’s Rachael Bradford Feldman was fourth with a time of 4:10.11. In the C-final, Sofie Underdahl went 4:17.02 and Sophie Cattermole put up a 4:17.6 for fourth and fifth. Marah Pugh was eighth, boarding a 4:21.51.
In the 100-fly, North Carolina’s Hellen Moffitt put up an A-cut time of 50.99 for the gold. UofL’s Grace Oglesby was fifth with a time of 52.30. Fellow freshman Nastja Govejsek tied for 7th with a time of 52.54. In the C-final, Lainey Visscher was third, with a time of 53.50. Hannah Magnuson touched fifth in that same heat with a 53.79.
Mallory Comerford uncorked a meet, pool, ACC and school record in the 200-free with a 1:41.70. That time makes her the eighth fastest performer of all time in that event and is the fastest in the country this year. It was a highly anticipated matchup between Comerford and Virginia’s Olympian Leah Smith. Comerford won the race by over a second and broke the former ACC Record of 1:42.51 set by Virginia’s Lauren Perdue in 2011. She also broke the former Pool Record of 1:42.42 done by Georgia’s Brittany MacLean in 2016, and lowered her own former Meet Record (1:42.79) by a second. Louisville’s Abigail Houck won the B-final with a 1:45.34. In the C-final, Alex Sellers touched third with a 1:47.66. Casey Fanz was fifth in that heat with a 1:47.95. Emily Moser was seventh with a 1:48.48.
In the 100 breast, defending champion Andrea Cottrell and meet record holder in this event was edged by Virginia’s Laura Simon who boarded a 58.46 for gold. Three swimmers from three different schools dipping below the 59-second mark and it made for a podium exclusively made up of seniors Simon cut a half-second from her prelim swim. Cottrell went 58.81 for an A-cut time. The other senior was Kayla Brumbaum of NC State, who was third 58.91. Also in the A-final was Silvia Guerra, who finished 8th with a time of 1:00.53.
North Carolina State’s Alexia Zevnik won gold in the 100-backstroke with a time of 50.80 A-cut time. Louisville’s Alina Kendzior was seventh in the A-final with a time of 52.66. Hannah Magnuson was sixth in the C-final with a time of 54.49.
The 400-Free Relay team of Alina Kendzior (52.65), Andrea Cottrell (58.65), Grace Oglesby (52.44) and Mallory Comerford (46.71) won silver with a time of 3:30.45. Kendzior was fourth in the backstroke leg, Andrea Cottrell handed over a second place to flyer Grace Oglesby who was third before Mallory Comerford anchored and made up a place for the runnerup slot.
The 2017 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships resume Thursday morning at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries in the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, and the men’s and women’s platform diving. The finals for those events, in addition to the final heat of the 1650 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay, begin at 6 p.m.
For more information on each event, visit the championship live blog: http://theacc.co/sd17recap0215.
LINKS
Championship Page
http://theacc.co/sdchamps
Schedule of Events
http://theacc.co/sd17events
Live Results
http://theacc.co/sd17livestats
Fan Guide
http://theacc.co/sd17fanguide
Finals Results
http://theacc.co/sd17final0215
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Nancy Allison Worley
Associate Director, Sports Information
University of Louisville Athletics