Feb. 17, 2010
Chapel Hill, N.C. – The University of Miami swimming & diving team picked up 28 points on Wed., Feb. 17, taking part in two events in opening-day action of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Swimming & Diving Championships at Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill, N.C. This year’s event is being hosted by the University of North Carolina.
Under the direction of fourth-year head coach Christie Shefchunas, the Hurricanes turned in their second-best time of the year in the 200 medley relay, finishing with a time of 1:46.04. The relay began with Hannah Kling (leadoff), followed by Sofia Johansson (second), Deidre Novotny (third) and Lauren Jacoby (anchor).
The previous-best time for this particular relay team was 1:47.56, turning in the performance in the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational (Miami’s season-opener) on Oct. 10 in Atlanta. That team ran in the same order during that meet at Georgia Tech where the `Canes also took to the water against Western Kentucky, Clemson and Georgia Tech, respectively.
The day of records being broken on the year for Miami wasn’t over yet, as the 800 free relay team put up a season-best performance of 7:30.24, using the swims of Annika Saarnak (leadoff), Hannah Kling (second), Ryann Labreche (third) and Lauren Jacoby (anchor).
Prior to posting the top time on the year Wednesday, the previous best time for UM in the 800 free relay was 7:35.84 at the Ohio State Invite in early December. That team used the performances of the same members from Wednesday, but in the running order of Saarnak (leadoff), Jacoby (second), Kling (third) and Labreche (anchor).
For the Hurricanes, this marks the second consecutive year they have broken records at the ACC Championships, and the second time in opening day action. Shefchunas and her staff have remained positive throughout the season that the ACC Championships were when the team would let loose for amazing results, and those results have come to fruition through just two events in Chapel Hill.
After one day of action, Virginia leads the standings with 80 points, and is followed by North Carolina (64) in second, Maryland (60) and Florida State (60) in third, Virginia Tech (56) in fifth, and Clemson (54), NC State (46), Georgia Tech (44), Duke (44), Miami (28), and Boston College (12).
The four-day championship continues Thurs., Feb. 18, with the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, and 50-yard freestyle preliminaries at 11 a.m. Finals in those events, along with the 200-yard freestyle relay, will begin at 7 p.m. The men’s three-meter and women’s one-meter diving preliminaries begin at 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m., respectively, with finals starting at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
For more information on the ACC Championships, please visit www.theacc.com.
Live results for the entire meet can be accessed by clicking here, or by visiting www.theacc.com. For live video access provided by TheACC.com, please visit the official ACC Swimming & Diving Championships website by clicking here.
For more information on the University of Miami Swimming & Diving team, please log on to www.hurricanesports.com. Once there, you will find up-to-date news, results and information regarding the Hurricanes Swimming & Diving program.