2020 WOMEN’S ACC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, February 19th to Saturday, February 22nd | Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (1x) (results)
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central: Here
- Detailed Timeline: Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
- Live Results
The first full finals session of the 2020 ACC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships is this evening, featuring the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, and the 200 free relay, as well as the men’s 1m diving finals and the women’s 3m diving finals.
After only two sessions, this meet appears to be shaping up to be, as expected, a battle between UVA and NC State. The Cavaliers got two of the top seeds from this morning. Paige Madden, last year’s runner-up, put up a 4:40.93 this morning to take lane four tonight. Freshman Kate Douglass holds the ACC record in the 200 IM, a 1:52.84 from the Tennessee Invite, and went 1:53.90 this morning, the fastest mark by over a second and a half.
Duke’s Alyssa Marsh will be in lane four in the 50 free, as she followed up a 22.0 fly split last night with a 21.78 this morning, although she’ll have to hold off a very strong field that includes last year’s champion, Virginia’s Morgan Hill.
While the Wolfpack didn’t nab any top seeds this morning, they will have 16 swimmers in tonight’s individual finals, including 8 spread across the three A-finals, and 4 of those A-finalists in the 500 free alone.
The final event of the evening, the 200 free relay, should be a tight one. NC State won this last year, and returns all four women from that relay. But UVA will use use Douglass, who had the fastest 50 free time in the conference heading into this meet, and Louisville put three women into the 50 free A-final today, plus another just outside, so on paper at least, this relay could go to any of those three teams.
Men’s 1m Diving – Finals
- ACC meet record: 531 – Nick McCrory, 2014
- ACC record: 531 – Nick McCrory, 2014
- Joshua Davidson (FSU), 382.95
- Ruben Lechuga (Georgia Tech), 342.50
- Noah Zawadzki (Virginia Tech), 337.50
FSU’s Joshua Davidson, held on to his top seed from this morning, winning by 40 points in the second men’s diving event of the week. With one event to go, UNC sits in the lead with 104 diving points. But the rest of the field isn’t too far behind; NC State has 99, Florida State has 99, and another five teams have at least 60 diving points.
Men’s Diving Points Through Day 2
- UNC – 104
- NC State – 99
- Florida State – 90
- Miami – 84
- Virginia – 78
- Duke – 73
- Virginia Tech – 66
- Louisville – 60
- Georgia Tech – 32
- Pitt – 23
- Notre Dame – 15
WOMEN’S 500 FREE – Finals
- ACC meet record: 4:30.74 – Leah Smith, 2016
- ACC record: 4:28.90 – Leah Smith, 2017
- 2019 ACC Champion: Mallory Comerford (LOU) – 4:34.63
- Paige Madden (Virginia) – 4:36.19
- Katie Moore (NC State) – 4:39.54
- Maddie Donohoe (Virginia) – 4:42.05
UVA junior Paige Madden dominated tonight, leading from wire-to-wire to capture the first individual swimming title of the meet. Madden won in 4:36.19, almost five seconds faster than her time from last year’s final, where she took 2nd to Mallory Comerford. That’s Madden’s 4th-fastest time of her career, and her 2nd-fastest time of the season; she went 4:34.64 at the Minnesota Invite in November.
There wasn’t much of a race for 2nd, either, as Kate Moore took 2nd by about 2.5 second, touching in 4:39.54 for NC State. Behind the two leaders, though, UVA freshman Maddie Donohoe and NC State senior Makayla Sargent dueled for 3rd, with Donohoe grabbing a podium spot, 4:42.05 to 4:42.82.
NC State had four swimmers in the A-final, but the other two were unable to move up from their 7th and 8th place finishes in prelims, taking the same spots in finals. Louisville, meanwhile, went 1-2 in the B-final, with Maria Sumida winning that race with a 4:44.27.
WOMEN’S 200 IM – Finals
- ACC meet record: 1:53.90 – Kate Douglass, 2020
- ACC record: 1:52.84 – Kate Douglass, 2019
- 2019 ACC Champion: Julia Poole (NCS) – 1:55.13
- Kate Douglass (Virginia) – 1:51.36
- Julia Poole (NC State) – 1:54.86
- Abby Richter (Virginia) – 1:55.22
There wasn’t a ton of doubt that Kate Douglass was going to win. The real question was, just how fast would she go? Sure enough, Douglass demolished the field, going out in 23.81 and never looking back, winning by exactly 3.5s in an ACC record time of 1:51.36. That took down her own meet record of 1:53.90 from this morning, her conference record of 1:52.84, from the Minnesota Invite, Missy Franklin’s pool record, and moves her up to #4 all-time.
Behind her NC State’s Julia Poole was dueling with a pair of Virginia swimmers, Abby Ritcher and Ella Nelson, with Poole touching 2nd in 1:54.86, while Richter passed Nelson on the free leg to take 3rd 1:55.22 to 1:55.43.
WOMEN’S 50 FREE – Finals
- ACC meet record: 21.54 – Caitlin Cooper, 2018
- ACC record: 21.48 – Caroline Baldwin, 2017
- 2019 ACC Champion: Morgan Hill (UVA) – 21.68
- Kylee Alons (NC State) – 21.63
- Morgan Hill (Virginia) – 21.76
- Ky-lee Perry (NC State) – 21.78
This turned out to be the same top three finishers as last year, albeit in a complete different order. NC State sophomore Kylee Alons took the win today in 21.63 after finishing 3rd last year in 21.81.
For the second year in a row, UVA’s Morgan Hill and NC State’s Ky-lee Perry touched at almost exactly the same time. Once again, it was Hill who just got her hand on the wall first, out touching Perry 21.76 to 21.78 tonight. Last year, Hill out touched Perry 21.68 to 21.69 for the win.
Louisville earned some big points here, as Casey Fanz matched her prelims time of 21.89 for 4th, Christina Regenauer took 5th in 22.10, and Arina Openysheva touched 7th in 22.26. Virginia Tech’s Joelle Verbeb shaved off a bit of time to take 6th in 22.20. Duke senior Alyssa Marsh appeared to have the lead early, but seemed to have an issue coming off the turn, ending up 8th in 22.30.
UVA freshman Lexi Cuomo knocked almost half a second off of her prelims time to win the B-final in 22.00.
Women’s 3m Diving – Finals
- ACC meet record: 439.70 – Abby Johnston, 2010
- ACC record: 439.70 – Abby Johnston, 2010
- Molly Carlson (Florida State) – 340.00
- Ayla Bonniwell (Florida State) – 321.05
- Sydney Dusel (Virginia) – 319.25
Florida State swept the top two spots, with Molly Carlson earning the victory after taking 2nd in the 1m last night. UVA’s Sydney Dusel took 3rd for the second night in a row, and the points she and 8th-place teammate Joceyln Porter collected in this event have moved UVA past NC State in the team standings, 460.5 to 443.
Women’s 200 Free Relay – Timed Finals
- ACC meet record: 1:26.15 – NC State, 2019
- ACC record: 1:26.15 – NC State, 2019
- 2019 ACC Champion: NC State – 1:26.15
- Virginia, 1:26.73
- Louisville, 1:27.44
- NC State, 1:27.50
UVA jumped out to the lead with a 21.75 leadoff by Kate Douglass. NC State stayed close through the first two legs, and then took the lead on a monster relay start by Sirena Rowe, after Kylee Alons split 21.35. The Wolfpack led into the anchor leg, but Morgan Hill demolished the field off the final wall to take the lead, and the Cavaliers won in 1:26.73. Virginia is now 3-for-3 on relays so far this meet.
We’d been saying that either Louisville or NC State could challenge for the win here, and as it turned out, Louisville nabbed 2nd despite NC State returning (although not using) all four women from last year’s ACC record-breaking team. The Cardinals just ran down the Wolfpack on a 21.62 anchor leg by Openysheva, taking 2nd 1:27.44 to 1:27.50.
Fastest splits in the field:
- Morgan Hill, Virginia, senior – 21.24
- Kylee Alons, NC State, sophomore – 21.35
- Casey Fanz, Louisville, senior – 21.50
- Alyssa Marsh, Duke, senior – 21.51
- Alex Cuomo, Virginia, freshman – 21.55
Team Scores Through Day 2
- Virginia – 524.5
- NC State – 497
- Louisville – 404
- Notre Dame – 350
- North Carolina – 325
- Florida State – 253.5
- Duke – 250
- Georgia Tech – 190
- Virginia Tech – 182
- Miami – 175
- Pitt – 145
- Boston College – 104
The story of day 1 for UVA is their heralded freshman class came up HUGE. They had 4 top-20 recruits:
Kate Douglass – enough said.
Ella Nelson – 1:55 IM for 4th
Maddie Donohoe – 4:42 500 for 3rd
Lexi Cuomo – 22.00 for 9th and 21.55 split on winning relay
Day 2 actually
Wasn’t Louisville second? It lists NC state as 2nd in the 2free relay
Yes, Louisville was second.
Virginia 3-for-3 on relays
The 200 Free Relay battle between Virginia, NC State and Louisville is going to be insane
After the 50 free final…. Team scores is looking like a tight, tight race!
NCState 417
UVA 396.5
Louisville 322
Noter Dame 262
UNC 235
Duke 184
VA Tech 159
FSU 145.5
GA Tech 126
Univ. Of Miami 120
Pitt 81
Boston College 70
State has 1 diver in the final, vs UVAs 2…diving and relays are going to be the deciding factor for tonight’s leader
I believe ncsu had 5 more swims today, very important for them to make every swim count
4 more swims (18 vs 14)
Thanks so much for these scores after 50 free
Trying to figure out why ACC Conference Championship Meet doesn’t post Real Time Results for every event
And why they don’t score before posting final events.
Appreciate the information
Please continue to do so
TIA
Is that a new NCAA record in the 2IM?
The American record is 1:50 point. That was a wowza performance. She’s looking like a likely Olympic teamer this year.
what event? I don’t see her making the team. although, haven’t really seen her swim long course.
She has several events where she has a legit shot.
Plus, she swims kinda fast like.
yea she’s fast, but let’s look:
200 IM – Baker and Walsh look real good, not to mention Margalis, Eastin, Cox
100 back – real tough with Smith, Baker, Bacon, Smoliga and others
50/100 free – not getting past Manuel, Weitzeil, Brown, etc., relay spot maybe
100 breast – maybe the best shot, after King
100 fly – another possibility but Dahlia and a whole host of vets and newcomers (Huske looks scary)
So, in conclusion: It looks tough. Maybe breast is the most likely option.
200 breast is probably her best or second best shot. Back is not even on the radar.
Is she a 200 free shot at the relay? That event is loaded, so perhaps 100 free shot at a relay is more probable. She just seems to be improving so rapidly, like Kieran Smith on the men’s side, that projection is king. She could close in on several events listed out above by Samuel. It’s an Olympic year where the wild ones are and animal spirits rule.
Two big differences between Smith and Douglass.
1. Smith destroyed the American record
2. We already know Smith has elite LCM times
Wait until NCAAs. I would guess Smith was fully rested or will not improve on his time, although his 400IM last night makes me think I could be wrong. But Douglass will have an excellent shot to break the American Record in the 200IM at NCAAs. Douglass has elite LCM times as well. You left out one other difference, Douglass is more versatile.
I would be willing to bet that she is shaved, but not fully tapered. Since she was already qualified, the eyes are on a NCAA title. Possibly in the 200 IM.
She’s gotta be ranked top 3 with that time, in the country, no?
Top 1 right now.
I believe that is a new NCAA record. Live results had the NCAA record as 1:51.65- Ella Eastin 2016
4IM – It looks like the ACC does not have all their records updated. Eastin’s swim in 2018 (also on the live results as the American and US Open Records) should also be the NCAA Record.
Ah, you’re right, my bad!
I’m sure glad the Wolfpack women stick to those distance events…as they take first and third in the 50
Can’t hear you over the 1:51.36
Hill passed Perry again on the 2nd 25
And then the Pack finishes third in the 200 FR…..
UVA double false start not called. Watch the video.
NC State fans should not talk about relays DQ’ing
That must hurt
I dont see it. Care to back up your claim with proof or reaction times? Maybe you can zoom in and post a photo of it??
The pad said -.03
While we can’t verify if the -.03 is true, by rule, a -.03 on the pad without clear evidence of equipment malfunction cannot be overruled by an official, no matter what their age is. By rule, that’s a legal start.
Thank you, and the results do show a -.03 and a .08 for the 2 exchanges in question. NC State did have an exchange of .01 as well.
Oh gotcha – I see them on the PDFs. Live results don’t have reactions.
UVa has been good for Katie Douglass….