Swim / Dive Continues Momentum at ACCs
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Miami Hurricanes took advantage of their opportunities Thursday as they continued their early run at the 2020 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships.
Knowing his swimmers would have limited chances given the Day 2 event schedule, head coach Andy Kershaw was impressed with the effort put forth by the Hurricanes at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
“They’re very excited,” Kershaw said. “They’re very motivated. We’re very excited about the next two days, and specifically our very next session – tomorrow morning. I think they’re going to come with great attitudes. We had a great night tonight with limited opportunities, but we knew that was probably going to be the case coming into the meet.”
One of Miami’s top performers Thursday was sophomore Zorry Mason, who finished fourth in the ‘B’ final of the 200-yard IM despite adverse conditions.
“Zorry really stepped up. She has been a little injured, so for her to make it into the ‘B’ final was really important and I was really proud of her for that,” Kershaw said. “I think she was pretty proud of herself, too.”
Mason touched the wall in a time of 1:59.22, just ahead of Jessica Horomanski of NC State (1:59.25) and Mariia Astashkina of Louisville (1:59.33).
“She was swimming out there in Lane 1 and she moved up quite a bit in that heat,” he said. “She was seeded to get seventh and moved up to fourth, out-touched two people to get some really important points.”
Miami’s swimmers ended the night on a high note, with Mason once again leading the charge. The Louisville, Ky., native finished under 23 seconds for the first time ever in her leg of the 200-yard freestyle, helping lead the Hurricanes to a time of 1:31.22.
Mason’s time of 22.88 moved her into fifth in program history.
“It was a great way to lead off the relay. For the relay to move up to ninth, it was another good grab at some points,” Kershaw said.
On the boards, both freshman Jessie Creed (249.35) and freshman Mia Vallee (235.40) scored points in the 3-meter springboard despite not advancing to the night’s finals.
Miami’s women enter Day 3 with 175 points while the men rank fourth in the field with 84 points.
“Where we’re sitting, we really feel like there are opportunities to push up the leaderboard,” Kershaw said. “It’s a close race and the team is excited about that. They’re looking forward to what they can do when they’re repping ‘The U’ tomorrow.”
