DURHAM, N.C. – The Virginia Tech men’s and women’s swimming and diving lead all duals after day one of the Hokies’ tri-meet against Duke and Florida State at the Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion in Durham, North Carolina.
Tech’s H2Okies women lead No. 23 Florida State 93-74 and are up on No. 20 Duke 96-71. The No. 19 Hokies’ men are dominating over No. 20 FSU 109.5-57.5 and Duke 113-54.
“Very pleased with our start,” said head coach Ned Skinner. “The women look very strong and I am pleased with the senior leadership from Klaudia [Nazieblo], Maggie [Gruber] and Adriana [Grabski]. Many new faces are emerging, too, in Joelle Vereb and Emily Meilus.”
The Hokies’ women got off to a strong start, taking the top spot in the 200yd freestyle (1:32.72) behind Joelle Vereb, Adriana Grabski, Maggie Gruber and Danielle Griggs. Tech followed up with a one, two finish from Reka Gyorgy and Klaudia Nazieblo, respectively, in the 200yd IM as Gyorgy set a pool record with a time of 1:59.87. Nazieblo clocked in at 2:01.52
Grace Kowal and Eleanor Matheson had top-3 finishes in the 500yd freestyle. Kowal came in second with a mark of 4:55.26 while Matheson finished third in 4:58.56. Kelly Henry brought in a third place finish in the 100yd breaststroke with a time of 1:04.28.
Gyorgy picked up her second top finish of the evening; this time in the 200yd backstroke, recording a time of 1:58.35. Freshman Emily Meilus finished just a few 10ths later with a time of 1:58.80 to come in third as a Duke swimmer split the Hokies to finish second.
Grabski and Griggs again turned in solid performances as Grabski took first in the 100yd freestyle (50.85) while Griggs finished third (51.24). Tech had another one, two finish with Nazieblo taking the 200yd butterfly with a time of 1:58.07. Gruber finished a few seconds later, tallying a time of 2:01.19.
The Hokies rounded out the evening’s swim events with a second place finish in the 400yd medley relay (3:42.03) with swims from Nazieblo, Henry, Gruber and Grabski.
Ashlynn Peters tallied a score of 319.10 in the women’s 3-meter diving event to finish second.
“The men did strong work today with big leadership from Justin Edwards and Harrison Pierce,” said Skinner. “[Jake] Lamparella and [Norbert] Szabo had key wins for us as well. New faces in [Lane] Stone and [Thomas] Hallock are promising for the future. We need to reset and be on our game in the morning, just like at ACCs and NCAAs.”
On the men’s side, the Hokies opened with a close 200yd freestyle relay as less than a second separated the top-3 teams. Tech finished third (1:20.94) behind Ian Ho, Thomas Hallock, David Herbert and Harrison Pierce. FSU took the top spot in a time of 1:20.61.
Norbert Szabo gave the Hokies their first individual win of the evening and started the men on a win streak as Tech claimed four consecutive events. Szabo won the 200 IM in 1:50.61 and was followed by Lane Stone winning the 500yd (4:27.24). Justin Edwards finished with a time of 55.93 to win the 100yd breaststroke and Jake Lamparella claimed the 200yd backstroke with a time of 1:47.52. During the streak, Michael Craddock also brought in a top-3 finish, taking second in the 500 (4:29.95).
Ian Ho brought in a second place (44.68) finish in the 100yd freestyle before Szabo claimed his second top finish of the evening, winning the 200yd fly (1:50.04).
The Hokies wrapped up the evening with a third place finish in the 400yd medley relay with a time of 3:18.85 off swims from Lamparella, Edwards, Pierce and Ho.
Competition will resume at 10 a.m. on Saturday.