UM Finishes 8th at ACC Swimming & Diving Championships
Feb. 21, 2009
Saturday Results | Complete Results in PDF Format 
College Park, Md. – The University of Miami collected a total of 219 points through four days to finish eighth overall at the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships held at the Eppley Recreation Center Natatorium on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park.
Miami was aided heavily on the final day of competition with divers Brittany Viola and Reuben Ross each taking podium finishes in one of their best events–the platform.
A day after her chance for back-to-back sweep attempts at all three diving events ended in the 3-meter springboard, the defending National Champion (platform) junior bounced back with a first place finish on the platform with a score of 361.85. Viola blew away her only other platform score of the year (308.80) from the Ohio State Invitational back in December.
As for her fellow teammate and defending Men’s Platform National Champion Reuben Ross, the Regina, Saskatchewan native collected his third podium finish of the championships with a second place score of 431.30 on the men’s platform. For Ross, a second place finish was not expected after leading through the preliminary round of dives with a score of 412.80.
Florida State’s Dan Frebel took top honors with a final round of 434.50.
Meanwhile, it was another school-record performing day for the Hurricanes over in the swimming lanes. Head swimming coach Christie Shefchunas and the `Canes collected two more NCAA `B’ cut times in the 200 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay.
The day’s highlights began with senior Britta Boesing collecting the best finish of the day in the lanes for the Orange and Green, turning in an NCAA `B’ cut qualifying mark of 2:14.83 in the finals of the 200 yard breaststroke. Boesing also managed to change the school-record yet again for the `Canes, posting a new mark of 2:14.29 in the preliminaries. The old time of 2:15.35 was held by Martyna Krawczyk and posted back in 2004.
Freshman Dana Hatic was not to be outdone as she finished the finals with a time of 2:15.75 to finish 13th, after posting a career-best time of 2:15.67 in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke. Senior Katie Eason also had a career-best time of 2:18.73 in the prelims.
“I’m so thrilled about how the girls are swimming,” expressed Shefchunas afterwards. “Everyone here has had a lifetime best. All the records being broken just proves to this team how much greatness there is here.”
Sophomore Tiffany Petzold collected a career-best performance in the 1650 freestyle, touching the wall at 17:09.43 overall. For Petzold, it was just her second 1650 free event of the campaign.
That was followed up by Deidre Novotny setting a new school-record time in the 200 yard backstroke. The sophomore posted a school-record time during the preliminaries with a 1:59.98 showing, breaking the old mark held by Katalin Ferenczi (2004). She would come back to register a mark of 2:01.22–which also broke Ferenczi’s previous mark of 2:01.69.
A few moments later during the preliminaries, sophomore Annika Saarnak posted a new career-best time of 50.18 seconds in the 100 freestyle. She came back in the evening to finish 19th in the event with a mark of 50.77. Lauren Jacoby also posted a career-best with a performance of 50.64 in the prelims–finishing 22nd overall after a 50.85 second time in the finals.
Cori Lallier posted a new team season-best mark in the 200 yard butterfly, coming in 19th overall with a finals time of 2:01.57. The junior transfer from Florida Gulf Coast previously had a best mark of 2:04.61 at the Ohio State Invitational. Freshman Erin Simpson also had a great time of 2:02.73 in the prelims.
The final event of the championships, ending with the 400 freestyle relay, simply capped off what was an eventful run through the four-day annual event for the `Canes.
The team of Saarnak (leadoff), Lauren Jacoby (second leg), Boesing (third leg) and Kirsten Pomerleau (anchor) collected the sixth (6th) NCAA `B’ cut qualifying time of the championships for Miami, turning in an impressive run of 3:21.21. That time was the best of the season for UM, and just a shade of a second off the school-record time of 3:20.86 set back in 2002.
“All of these relay records show that it’s one of the strongest teams Miami has ever had,” added Shefchunas.
The University of Virginia walked away with top honors on the women’s side of the championships, collecting 848 points, while North Carolina finished a distant second with 602.5 points.
For more information on the University of Miami Swimming & Diving programs, please locate your internet browser to www.hurricanesports.com. Once there, navigate your way to the Swimming & Diving home page where you will find up-to-date news, results and top times for the 2008-09 campaign.
For more information on the ACC Championships for swimming and diving, please visit http://www.theacc.com/sports/c-swim/09-sd-championship.html.
