Starks Wins Gold at ACC Championship
Feb. 17, 2006
<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Junior Derek Starks won his second medal of the Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships when he finished first on the one-meter for the gold medal Friday evening. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Starks, who won the silver medal on the one-meter 2005, turned in a score of 354.10 to win the event. The win marked his first league title. The Mission Viejo, Calif., native won his first medal of the 2006 meet on Thursday, taking silver in the three-meter dive.
“Derek had a fantastic performance tonight,” said head diving coach Randy Ableman. “I’m very proud of him. This is the best he’s dove all year which bodes very well for next month’s NCAA Championships.”
The third day of competition at the ACC Championships that are being held at Maryland’s Campus Recreation Center Natatorium proved to be another successful day for the women’s diving team as well. The Hurricanes went 2-3-4 in the finals of the three-meter event.
Senior Melanie Rinaldi also won her second medal of the ACC Championship finishing second on the three-meter with a score of 333.45. A little over one point separated Rinaldi from first place finisher Molly Culberson of NC State, who took the gold with a score of 334.65. Rinaldi, a Montreal native, won gold in the one-meter Thursday evening.
Sophomore Jenna Dreyer claimed her second bronze medal of the meet after finishing third with a score of 333.00. She finished third in Friday’s one-meter final.
Junior Heather Bounds had her best showing of the meet so far, coming in fourth on the three-meter with a score of 324.85.
“This was a great day for the women,” said Ableman. “Though we didn’t win the title, we came in second, third, fourth and 11th. They scored a lot of points for the team. Melanie and Jenna were within two points of winning the event.”
“They are diving really well now. This meet is an important stepping stone for the NCAA Championships.”
The Hurricane swimmers also made their mark on Friday, with two Hurricanes finishing in the Top-Eight and three finishing in the Top-18 of the evening’s finals.
Freshman Christine Zweigers was again Miami’s top finisher, coming in fifth in the 100-yard butterfly with a season-best time of 55.43. Junior Andrea Hughes swam in the C-Final and finished 18th overall with a time of 56.74.
Three Miami freshman breaststrokers returned to swim in the evening’s 100-yard breaststroke final. Magda Waszkiewicz swam in the A-Final, finishing eighth with a time of 1:04.22. She turned in UM’s fastest time of the season in the event in the preliminaries when she touched the wall with a time of 1:03.98. Melinda Hochard finished 16th with a time of 1:05.73 after swimming in the B-Final before Christina Rau, swimming in the C-Final, touched the wall in a time of 1:07.76 for 24th place.
Junior Ashley Knapp was merely seven one-hundredths of second from matching her 100-yard backstroke record of 57.23 set last season at the ACC Championship. Knapp came in ninth with a season-best time of 57.30.
Freshman Margaret Ravenna, swimming in the C-Final, finished 18th in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 58.44.
“We had a great day today,” said head swimming coach Mariusz Podkoscielny. “We had two Top-Eight finishes, both from freshman swimming in their first ACC Championship. We also had a couple Top-16 finishes.”
The Hurricanes remain seventh in the team standings with 213 points. FloridaState has the lead with 415.5 total points followed by Virginia in second with 375 points and North Carolina in third with 352 points. Virginia Tech is fourth (285) followed by Maryland (284), Clemson (271), Miami (213), NC State (153.5), Georgia Tech (132), Duke (116) and BostonCollege (61).
“We are sitting solid in seventh out of 11 teams,” said Podkoscielny. “Our goal was to finish in the Top-Eight. We have one more day to accomplish that. I’m happy where we are sitting. We already have 40 points more after three days of competition than we did after the whole meet last year.”
The ACC Swimming and Diving Championship will conclude Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 11:00 a.m. followed by finals at 7:00 p.m.
