Hokie ClubGREENSBORO, N.C. - The Virginia Tech women’s team completed the 2016 ACC Women's Swimming and Diving Championships with a strong final day to finish fifth in the competition.
The Hokies were led by medal performances for the second straight day from both Klaudia Nazieblo and Weronika Paluszek who earned a silver and bronze medal, respectively. Nazieblo got a silver medal in the 200 fly while Paluszek earned her bronze in the 200 breast. Nazieblo had two silver medals on the weekend while Paluszek had two bronze medals.
“The women were awesome and really rallied around the cause today. There were so many that contributed and of course we had the podium finishes and we have great stories like Maggie Gruber, Jessica Hespeler and our freshman. Ashlynn Peters and Sydney Pesetti found a way to contribute. It’s a great feeling knowing where we are and where we’re heading. This is also going to be a strong NCAA team so we’re looking forward to building for the next month,” head coach Ned Skinner said.
The Hokies, who were in eighth place at one point, surged the last two days to finish in fifth place. Tech finished with 705 points overall and 62.5 points clear of sixth place Duke.
Jessica Hespeler got the night started by finishing fifth in the 1650 free and swam a time of 16:11.47 to earn the team 25 points. Jessica Arnold earned 11 points in the event with a time of 16:41.86.
Nazieblo finished fifth in the A final of the 200 back with a time of 1:53.81 to earn 25 points. Fiona Donnelly swam a 1:56.16 to come in third in the B final of the 200 back and earn 16 points while Holly Harper earned 11.5 points after swimming a 1:57.46.
Adriana Grabski finished at the top of the C final for the 100 free and earned nine points and Alice Boutant earned three points in the event.
Paluszek earned a bronze medal with her time of 2:09.95 while Mackenzie Stewart also swam 2:13.71 in the 200 breast as part of the B final to earn 15 points.
In the A final, Nazieblo swam a 1:55.30 to earn a silver medal in the 200 fly. Gruber earned 22 points while Laura Schwartz and Sydney Pesetti combined to earn six. All told, the Hokies pulled a total of 56 points from the 200 fly.
In the last event of the ACC Championships, the Tech 400 free relay swam a time of 3:18.02 to finish in sixth place overall and earn 48 points.
In men’s diving portion, the Hokies had three divers make it to the platform finals. Mauro Castro-Silva, who finished with his third finals appearance of the ACC Championships, led Tech with a bronze medal in the men’s platform to cap off a week where he finished in the top six in all three diving events. Eduardo Castro-Silva also made his second finals appearance in his first ACC Championships and finished sixth in the platform finals. Logan Stevens took home fifth place in the platform with a score of 362.05.
As a group, the men’s divers put up 247 points overall and are 98 points ahead of second place Georgia Tech as the men’s team will begin the swimming portion on Wednesday.
Ashlynn Peters made the finals of the women’s platform and finished seventh with a score of 244.15 and her scored earned the team 23 points.
“I’m very pleased with the diver’s accomplishments at this year’s ACC Championships and all divers scored. Ashlynn Peters closed out the meet with a seventh place finish in the platform event and Leah Piemonte scored as well. The men dominated again this year with three guys in the final. The men scored a huge 247 points this week, close to 100 more than the next team, which will be added to the men’s meet next week” head diving coach Ron Piemonte said.
The ACC Championships also served as a point in the Commonwealth Clash, presented by Virginia529, the official college savings plan of Virginia Tech Athletics. With a higher finish today from Virginia Women’s Swimming & Diving they have added a point for their school to the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash. The score for the Clash is now, University of Virginia 5 and Virginia Tech 3.5. Learn more about Virginia529 and this new competition at www.thecommonwealthclash.com.
The men will take part in the swimming portion of 2016 ACC Men’s Championships beginning on Wednesday. The NCAA Women’s Championships are March 17-19 with the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships taking place in Annapolis, Md.