Hurricanes Break School Record to Open ACC Championship
Feb. 15, 2006
<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>COLLEGE PARK, Md. –Miami’s relay team of Ashley Knapp, Magda Waszkiewicz, Andrea Hughes and Christine Zwiegers broke the 200-yard medley relay school record on the first day of competition at the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championship Wednesday evening at Maryland’s Campus Recreation Center Natatorium. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Miami’s 200-yard medley relay team touched the wall in seventh place with a time of 1:43.61, over one and a half seconds from the school record time of 1:45.12 set in 2002.
“To break a four-year old school record is exciting,” said head coach Mariusz Podkoscielny. “To drop over a second in a 200-yard relay is a huge jump.”
In the 800-yard freestyle relay, the day’s first event, three out of four swimmers turned in lifetime bests. Emerson Davis, Margaret Ravenna, Kristen Lunak and Capria DeVenuto, came in 11th in a time of 7:43.65.
Davis split a life-time best time of 1:55.59 in the first 200 yards of the relay. Ravenna followed suit with a lifetime best time of 1:54.71. Lunak touched the wall with a season-best time of 1:59.17 before DeVenuto anchored the relay touching in a life-time best, 1:54.18.
“We had a great evening,” said Podkoscielny. “We’re very excited for the rest of the meet and look forward to tomorrow’s races where we can get the ball rolling.”
At the end of the first day of competition, Virginia holds the lead with 74 team points. FloridaState is a close second in the meet standings with 72 points while Clemson and defending league champion and championship host Maryland are tied for third with 60. North Carolina (58 points) is fifth, and is followed by Virginia Tech (56), Duke (40), Georgia Tech (40), NC State (38), Miami (36) and BostonCollege (14).
Competition at the ACC Championship resumes Thursday with preliminaries beginning at 11 a.m. and finals starting at 7 p.m.
