Sports

Day 1 Finals Live Recap

By skynews

Posted on 19/02/2025

2025 ACC SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

College conference championships get underway in earnest tonight with several meets, including the ACC Championships in Greensboro, NC. This meet looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago, for a couple different reasons. After decades of holding separate championship meets for the women and men, the separate meets have been combined in a five-day format since 2022. Secondly, powerhouses Cal and Stanford have joined the conference, along with SMU.

There will only be a handful of events tonight, but we’ve grown accustomed to seeing ACC teams bring the heat to kick off the meet, and tonight should be no exception.

The competition begins with the 200 medley relay. The UVA women own the all-time mark, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them flirt with that record tonight. That may depend, however, on whether or not they choose to load up the second event of the evening, the 800 free relay. That’s the only yards NCAA/U.S. Open relay record that doesn’t belong to the Cavaliers, and there’s been a lot of speculation that they may try to go after that record tonight, perhaps by putting sprint star Gretchen Walsh on that relay.

On the men’s side, the 200 medley relay figures to come down between NC State and Cal. The Wolfpack own the meet and conference records, and they held the all-time record for a year, after becoming the first time to go under 1:21 at the 2023 NCAA Championships. Cal is dangerous in the 200 medley relay as well, but they’re probably more of a threat in the 800 free relay, where the Bears return all four men who set the all-time record at last year’s NCAA championships.

Today’s Event Schedule

200 medley relay
Women’s 1-meter diving
800 free relay
Men’s 3-meter

WOMEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY – TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:31.51, Virginia – 2023 NCAA Championships
ACC Record: 1:31.51, Virginia – 2023 NCAA Championships
ACC Championship Record: 1:31.73, Virginia (2023)
NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:36.24
NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:36.76

Top 8:

Stanford – 1:34.05 (A)
Cal – 1:34.34 (A)
Louisville – 1:34.55 (A)
Virginia – 1:35.18 (A)
NC State – 1:35.22 (A)
FSU – 1:35.27 (A)
UNC – 1:35.48 (A)
Pitt – 1:36.68 (A)

The Stanford women won their very first ACC Championships race, overcoming a deep field to win in 1:34.05. That moves them to #3 in the country this season, behind only UVA and Texas.

Levenia Sim led off in 24.17, followed by Lucy Thomas (26.31), Gigi Johnson (22.97), and Torri Huske (20.60). The Cardinal knocked over half a second off their midseason time of 1:34.61.

Cal was in the lead for most of the race. Isabelle Stadden put the Bears in the lead early with a 23.61 leadoff, then Lea Polonsky (26.44) and Mckenna Stone (22.91) held on through the middle two legs. Mary-Ambre Moluh anchored in 21.38, touching in 1:34.34. The Bears were slightly faster at midseason, and their season best of 1:34.24 still appears to rank #3 nationally.

Louisville took 3rd in 1:34.55, led by Gabi Albiero‘s 22.67 fly split, the fastest in the field. UVA is presumably concentrating on the 800 free relay tonight, and they took 4th in 1:35.18. Still, even with their ‘B’ team, the Cavaliers were under the NCAA ‘A’ cut, as were NC State (1:35.22), Florida State (1:35.27), UNC (1:35.48), and Pitt (1:36.68).

MEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY – TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:20.15, Florida – 2024 NCAA Championships
ACC Record: 1:20.67, NC State – 2023 NCAA Championships
~~ACC Championship Record: 1:21.69, NC State – 2022~~
NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:23.62
NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:23.90

Top 8:

Cal – 1:21.54 (A)
FSU – 1:21.98 (A)
NC State – 1:22.06 (A)
Stanford – 1:22.74 (A)
Louisville – 1:23.02 (A)
NC State – 1:23.20 (A)
Virginia – 1:24.14
Pitt – 1:24.32

Just like Stanford on the women’s side, the Cal Bear men took the victory in their first race at their first ACC Championships. Bjorn Seeliger led off in 20.85; he’s been under 20.3 on at least three occasions, so he presumably has more in the tank next month. Freshman Yamato Okadome split 22.91 on breast, Dare Rose went 19.68 on fly, and Jack Alexy anchored in 18.10. That would’ve moved them from #4 to #2 nationally this season, except for the flurry of sub-1:21s. we saw at SECS earlier this evening.

The bigger story may be the Florida State Seminoles, especially their freshman butterflier Michel Arkhangelskiy. They were roughly a second behind Cal after a 20.96 leadoff from Mason Herbet and a 23.15 breast split from Tommaso Baravelli. But Arkhangelskiy dove in and ran down Rose with a 19.10 fly split. That looks to rank within the top ten splits of all time. Sam Bork‘s 18.77 wasn’t enough to hold off the Alexy buzzsaw, but it was more than enough to hold off NC State in the race for 2nd, and break the FSU record by over a second, touching in 1:21.98.

NC State took 3rd in 1:22.06. Sam Hoover split 22.88 on breast, over half a second better than the 23.40 he went at last year’s NCAAs as part of NC State’s American Record-setting effort (and his 23.51 at ACCs). Luke Miller (19.81) and Quintin McCarty (18.35) were fairly close to last year’s ACC’s splits. The Wolfpack was missing Aiden Hayes and his 20-low leadoff times, although Hudson Williams hit a new personal best with his 21.02 leadoff.

Stanford got a 19.52 fly split from Andrei Minakov to finish 4th in 1:22.74, in a season-best time, while Louisville was about half a second off their season-best while taking 5th in 1:23.02.

The UNC Tar Heels have reset a good chunk of their record book this season, and that trend continued tonight as they took 0.06s off their record to take 6th in 1:23.20.

The top six teams all finished under the NCAA ‘A’ cut. Virginia Tech initially touched under that mark as well, but drew a DQ. UVA is on the

WOMEN’S 1M DIVING – FINALS

ACC Record: 379.98, Jenna Dreyer (Miami) – 2007 NCAA Zone B Diving Regional
ACC Championship Record: 379.25, Aranza Vazquez (UNC) – 2023 ACC Championships

Top 8:

Aranza Vazquez (UNC) – 357.40
Mia Vallee (Miami) – 349.30
Chiara Pellacani (Miami) – 329.55
Elizabeth Kaye (UVA) – 303.75
Samantha Vear (FSU) – 303.00
Margo Omeara (Duke) – 293.90
Eliana Joyce (UNC) – 276.25
Lanie Gutch (UNC) – 268.20

UNC fifth-year Aranza Vazquez won her third ACC 1m title, and her eight ACC title overall, with a 357.40 win tonight. Vazquez swept the diving events in 2023, and she won the 1m and 3m events last year, and the 3m and platform events in 2021.

Tonight, 2021 champion Mia Vallee of Miami took 2nd in 349.30. Both UNC and Miami racked up some points in this event, as the Tar Heels had three women finish in the top eight, and the Hurricanes took both 2nd (Vallee) and 3rd (Chiara Pellacani).

WOMEN’S 800 FREE RELAY – TIMED FINALS

~~NCAA Record: 6:45.91, Stanford – 2017 NCAA Championships~~
~~ACC Record: 6:46.28, Virginia – 2024 ACC Championships~~
~~ACC Championship Record: 6:46.28, Virginia (2024)~~
NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 7:00.86
NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 7:05.56

Top 8:

Virginia – 6:44.13 (A)
Stanford – 6:51.79 (A)
Cal – 6:55.98 (A)
NC State – 6:56.32 (A)
Louisville – 7:01.66 (B)
Virginia Tech – 7:02.28 (B)
Pitt – 7:03.77 (B)
UNC – 7:04.45 (B)

The one record that had eluded the Virginia women over the last few years has fallen, the iconic Stanford 2017 all-time mark of 6:45.91 set by Simone Manuel, Lia Neal, Ella Eastin, and Katie Ledecky.

After coming within a few tenths of that record last year, the Cavaliers demolished it tonight, taking nearly two seconds off that mark with a 6:44.13.

Gretchen Walsh led off by rattling Missy Franklin’s all-time mark in the 200 free. Walsh went 47.14 to the feet before going 52.20 on the back half for a sterling 1:39.34 leadoff. Walsh joins Franklin and Mallory Comerford as the only two women to ever go under 1:40 on a flat start.

Alex Walsh kept rolling with a 1:41.87 split, and at the halfway point the Virginia women were already nearly two seconds under Stanford’s pace. Aimee Canny split 1:42.03 on the third leg, then Claire Curzan nearly matched Ledecky’s 1:40.46 split with a 1:40.89. As Canny represents South Africa internationally, the Stanford quartet retains the American Record.

Of note, that’s the first time the Cavaliers have competed in this event this season, as they opted to skip it at the Tennessee Invite.

It’s also the 18th consecutive ACC title for the Cavaliers in this event. They last lost in 2007, to UNC.

Tonight, Stanford took 2nd behind Virginia. Torri Huske led off in 1:42.52, about six-tenths of a second slower than her lifetime best of 1:41.90 from last month’s dual meet against USC. Caroline Bricker (1:43.03), Lillie Nordmann (1:43.18), and Kayla Wilson (1:43.06) all split within 0.15s of each other, as the Cardinal finished in 6:51.79. That puts them 4th in the nation this season, behind Virginia, and then SEC Championships performances tonight from Tennessee (6:49.83) and Texas (6:51.63).

Cal finished 3rd in 6:55.98, highlighted by a personal-best 1:42.71 leadoff from Lea Polonsky. NC State freshman Erika Pelaez split 1:42.28 on the second leg to help the Wolfpack to a 6:56.32 effort.

The Pitt women set a school record of 7:03.77 en route to a 7th-place finish. Just two years ago, the Panther women were nearly last in this event with a time of 7:21.52.