Hokie ClubCHRISTIANSBURG - The Virginia Tech swimming and diving programs knocked off Pittsburgh and Notre Dame to open their Atlantic Coast Conference schedule on Friday and Saturday.
The No. 22/27 men’s team moved to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the ACC while the No. 27 women improved to 7-1 and 2-0 in the ACC. The men beat Notre Dame 237-131 and Pittsburgh 254-116. The women won 224-146 over Pittsburgh and 208-162 over Notre Dame.
The meet, a continuation from Friday night, began Saturday morning as the men and women’s teams each won their respective 400-medley relay, 500 free and the 200 IM.
“It was a great ACC weekend. A lot of strong competition and we were pleased with the wins, Jessica Hespeler, Klaudia Nazieblo and Michal Szuba merit much praise. I’m also proud of Ashlynn Peters bounce back day. We have many swimmers and divers coming around and we look forward to the next two weeks of training for the Tennessee Invitational,” head coach Ned Skinner said.
Among the first place finishes on the second day, Jessica Hespeler and Michal Szuba both won the 500 free. Fiona Donnelly and Brandon Fiala both placed first in the 200 IM. Hespeler also won the 200 free to cap off a great weekend with a time of 1:50.47.
In the 200 fly, Klaudia Nazieblo swam a 2:01.08 for the victory and was followed closely by Maggie Gruber who placed second. Nazieblo, in the very next event, won again in the 100 back with a time of 55.46.
Zach Switzer won the 100 back and Weronika Paluszek came in first in the 200 breast.
In the women’s 1-meter event, Ashlynn Peters scored a 312.90 to bounce back from Friday night. In the men’s 3-meter event, Tech finished in second, third and fourth. Mauro Castro-Silva took second with a score of 362.85.
“I’m really pleased with how the divers competed this weekend. We encountered a couple of speed bumps on the first day of competition however we came back real strong on the second day. We faced some really tough ACC competition this weekend. It was good to be able to work through some difficulties and finish up with some real solid performances on both the men and women’s squads,” head diving coach Ron Piemonte said.
The Hokies took the top three spots in the men’s 200 breast as Justin Edwards was able to take first followed by Michael Craddock and Eric Delmonte. Edwards won with a time of 2:05.70.
The Hokies will be back in the pool at the Tennessee Fall Invitational Nov. 20-22