AUSTIN, Texas – Sophomore Lane Stone earned the first All-American honors of his career as he took 11th on Thursday during the second day of the NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships in Austin, Texas.
Stone turned in a 4:14 flat, taking .37 off his morning prelim time. He adds the accolade to his already impressive resume, including a first day at NCAAs that saw Stone break his own Tech record in the 200 free.
"Today was a good day," said head coach Sergio Lopez Miro. "We had Lane who swam two of the fastest times of his career. He placed 11th, swimming a very smart race and was the fastest ACC swimmer in the event, so he beat the two guys who beat him at the conference meet. I am very excited for Lane, he did a great job coming back from yesterday after breaking the school record."
The Hokies got the day started with the prelims of the 200 freestyle relay with Jake Lamparella, Ian Ho, Thomas Hallock and Henry Claesson finishing 22nd overall with a time of 1:18.57.
"The relay was interesting. Jake led off the relay and we found out later that he is under-the-weather and not feeling well, so he was just a bit off. Then on the final leg, no excuses, but Henry missed the wall with his left leg on the final turn so he didn't get any push off the wall."
In the 200 IM, Norbert Szabot turned in a time of 1:43.88 to place 27th overall. Sophomore Sam Tornqvist swam a 1:44.94 in the event to finish 40th.
"Norbert did a good job this morning. He faded a bit in his final 50, but he was on track to finish well. Hopefully tomorrow he will be able to come back and do well in the 200 free."
On the boards, Ben Schiel was just shy of making the finals as he placed 17th in the 1-meter with a score of 304.20. Freshman Noah Zawadzki turned in a score of 244.10 to finish in 41st overall.
"Ben did a good job. He finished just outside the top-16 at 17th by just a couple points, but he had a good day and will be ready to come back tomorrow for 3-meter."
The Hokies will be back in the pool on Friday with the 100 fly, 200 free, 100 back and 3-meter diving. Prelims will begin at 11 a.m. ET.
