Hokie ClubGREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Virginia Tech men’s swimming and diving team will carry an undefeated conference record into this weekend, as the No. 15 H2Okies head to the 2014 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Swimming Championship at Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Tech, which is 5-0 against ACC schools and 13-2 overall for the 2013-14 season, heads to Greensboro in search of it’s first-ever ACC team championship, which in-state rival Virginia has captured each of the last six years.
Last year, the H2Okies took home runner-up honors, marking Tech’s best-ever finish at the ACC Championships. No. 14 North Carolina, who Tech edged out for second place last season, is the only ACC team that is above the H2Okies in the national rankings, though Tech did down the Tar Heels, 186-167, to kick off the 2013-14 campaign.
Ryan Hawkins and the H2Okie divers have already staked Tech a lead heading into this week’s swimming events, as the senior’s pair of bronze medals led the way to 205 points for the H2Okies in last week’s three diving events, 36 points ahead of second-place Florida State and 103 points ahead of defending champion Virginia.
Junior Morgan Latimer looks to lead the H2Okies to their first-ever title, after tallying 29 points at last year’s ACC Championships. The Richmond, Va. native already possesses four NCAA “B” cut times in the 50 free, 100 back, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly and is a member of the 800 freestyle relay, along with Owen Burns, Lucas Bureau and Jan Switkowski, that swam an NCAA “A” cut and school record time of 6:23.96.
Switkowski also possesses three NCAA “B” cut times in addition to the relay, with his coming in the 200 free, 500 free and 200 IM. In all, the H2Okies have 21 individual NCAA “B” cut times entering the week.
The ACC Championships are scheduled to take place from Feb. 26-29, with preliminaries for all events kicking off at 11 a.m. each day and finals starting at 7 p.m.
A live video stream of event finals will be available on theACC.com Thursday through Saturday beginning at 7 p.m., with Dean Linke handling play-by-play and Warren Perry providing analysis.
There is no charge for admission to the 2014 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships. Parking is available for $8 or for $15 for a session pass.
All championship information, including a full event schedule and live results, can be found at the official championship website, http://theacc.co/SwimDiveChamps.