After one day of tri-meet action at the Christianburg Aquatic Center, the #3 Virginia women are well ahead of Towson and Virginia Tech with the help of two wins from standout Courtney Bartholomew. The #21 Virginia men have distanced themselves from Towson but will start day two behind the host Virginia Tech Hokies who are fighting to keep their 9-0 undefeated season aflame.
Scores after day 1 of 2:
Women: Virginia 120 vs Virginia Tech 47, Virginia 136 vs Towson 31, Virginia Tech 122 vs Towson 45.
Men: Virginia Tech 101 vs Virginia 66, Virginia Tech 131 vs Towson 35, Virginia 130 vs Towson 36.
Full day one results are at this link.
The Virginia women managed to capture the overall win for every swimming event contested on day one, starting with the 200 free relay squad of Kasey Schmidt, Ellen Thomas, Caitlin Cooper and Courtney Bartholomew whose 1:31.67 left a gap of three seconds between them and the nearest competitor.
In the 200 IM, Courtney Bartholomew led a 1-3 sweep for Virginia with 2:00.75. The top finisher in the dual between the Hokies and the Tigers was Towson’s Charlotte Holz at 2:04.99. Virginia’s Hanne Borgerson took the win for the 500 freestyle in 4:50.03. The second place finisher overall in the event was Virginia Tech’s Jessica Hespeler at 4:54.95.
The women’s 100 breast featured a tight race for second place as Virginia’s Vivian Tafuto held back Tech’s Weronika Paluszek by a hundredth, finishing in 1:02.33. The overall winner for the sprint breaststroke was Virginia’s Laura Simon at 1:01.55.
Courtney Bartholomew, currently the only swimmer in the NCAA so far this season who has turned in a sub-1:50 for the 200 back after her 1:49.63 at the Georgia Fall Invitational, won the event with 1:55.61. The top finisher between Towson and Tech was Natalie Obando who turned in 2:01.65 for the Tigers.
Ellen Thomas led a 1-4 sweep of the 100 freestyle for Virginia with her 50.27. Adriana Grabski was fifth overall with 52.26, but took the top points for the Hokies versus Towson. Virginia Tech nearly grabbed an overall win on a 1:58.74 200 butterfly from Klaudia Nazieblo, but was out-touched by Jen Marrkand who kept the Cavalier streak alive with 1:58.73. The Virginia 400 medley relay team of Bartholomew, Simon, Marrkand and Thomas easily won the event with 3:38.22 to close day one for the women.
The men’s meet featured several tight races, with the host Hokies taking four overall wins for the day one swimming events. The Virginia Tech squad of Lucas Bureau, Ian Ho, Brandon Fiala and Adam Thomas combined to finish more than two seconds ahead of the second place Virginia A squad with 1:21.53.
Virginia’s Sam Magnan answered with a close win over Tech’s Michal Szuba in the 500, finishing just .02 ahead for the win with 4:29.79 to Szuba’s 4:29.81.
The Hokies took the next three events with wins by Brandon Fiala in the 100 breast (55.50,) Robert Owen in the 200 back (1:47.29,) and Lucas Bureau in the 100 free (45.21.) Bureau’s time held back Virginia’s Nicholas Magana who made it interesting with 45.33 for second overall.
Virginia’s Zach Fong won the 200 fly with 1:48.93, less than three tenths of a second ahead of Tech’s Norbert Szabo at 1:49.22. Virginia also picked up a win in the 400 medley relay when Austin Quinn, Murat Yildirim, Zach Fong and Nicholas Magana claimed a .17 victory over Tech with 3:19.21 to the Hokies’ 3:19.38.
Seniors will be celebrated tomorrow before day two racing begins at 11am eastern time.
Is uva getting kaitlyn jones back in time for NCAA’s? Would have likely had a shot at breaking standards American record in the 400 medley relay after getting touched out last year