Rinaldi Claims Gold on One-Meter at ACC Championship
Feb. 16, 2006
<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Senior diver Melanie Rinaldi claimed the gold medal in the one-meter on the second day of competition at the Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Rinaldi, who one her first-ever conference title, notched a score of 309.25 to claim the title. The win marks the second year in a row that a Hurricane has won the women’s one-meter event. Sophomore Jenna Dreyer took gold in the event in 2005.
Dreyer walked away with a piece of hardware herself after coming in third with a score of 279.20 for the bronze medal.
“I’m really pleased with today’s results,” said head diving coach Randy Ableman. “Melanie won her first conference championship. Jenna ended up third after winning the preliminaries. They both competed very well.”
In the men’s diving three-meter event, junior Derek Starks tallied a season-best score of 368.45 to take the silver medal. Last season, Starks claimed the bronze medal on the three-meter.
“Derek had his best performance of the year,” said Ableman. “It’s a little disappointing because we always want to win but it was a good performance by him. It was a great day for us.”
Freshman Christine Zwiegers became the highest finisher for a Miami swimmer at the ACC Championships. Zwiegers finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle with an NCAA B cut time of 23.22–the best time turned in by a Hurricane this season. Zwiegers reached the final with a time of 23.50 in the preliminaries.
“Christine had a great swim,” said head swimming coach Mariusz Podkoscielny. “She finished fifth in the 50-yard free as a freshman swimming in her first conference championship. We are very excited for her. She’s still developing and will only get better.”
The Hurricanes moved up to seventh in the team standings with 100 points. North Carolina holds a narrow lead with 198 points ahead of second-place FloridaState (196.5). Virginia is a close third with 191 points, and is followed by Virginia Tech (174), Clemson (160), Maryland (149), Miami (100), NC State (99.5) Duke (73), Georgia Tech (69) and BostonCollege (38).
“Tomorrow we need to make sure we swim well in the morning so that we can come back at night and get in a scoring position,” concluded Podkoscielny. “We are very excited with where we are now and have a lot of swimmers competing tomorrow. We need to keep getting it done.”
The men’s one-meter dive will take place on Friday, with preliminaries beginning at 1:00 p.m. followed by finals at 5:00 p.m. Day three of the women’s championship will begin with preliminaries at 11:00 a.m. and finals at 7:00 p.m. The ACC Championships are being held on the campus of the University of Maryland at the Campus Recreation Center Natatorium.
