GREENSBORO, N.C. – Freshman Antani Ivanov took the bronze in the 200 butterfly to help lead Virginia Tech to a fourth place team finish on the final day of competition at the 2019 ACC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
"I think it's very hard to single out one person on the team," said head coach Sergio Lopez Miro. This week most importantly it was not about one person or winning, but about supporting one another as best we can. They came to Virginia Tech to be Hokies and they have really bought into the team thought process we have, and it really showed in this meet. We had no expectations of anything and we just kept pushing to get better every session."
Ivanov swam a Tech record setting time of 1:42.51 during the morning prelims, breaking the record of 1:42.58 set by Morgan Latimer in 2014. He followed up in the championship finals by setting a new record of 1:41.28 to claim the bronze and record an NCAA B qualifying time.
Freshman Blake Manoff actually broke Ivanov's morning record with a 1:42.36 in the consolation final, but ultimately posted the second fastest time in program history which led him to win his heat and finish ninth overall in the 200 fly. Senior Norbert Szabo took 24th in the event with a 1:43.37 (B).
Tech began the evening session with a stellar showing in the 1650 free. Five Hokies scored in the distance event led by a school record seventh-place finish from sophomore Lane Stone. He turned in a time of 14:54.65 (B) to break the record he set last season (14:55.50).
Freshman Filippo Dal Maso added a ninth-place finish in 15:03.53 while fellow freshman Brennen Doss was 13th (15:05.89). Senior Michael Craddock was 14th with a time of 15:08.84 and freshman Keith Myburgh came in 17th (15:14.34). All four recorded NCAA B cut times.
Sophomore Sam Tornqvist continued his strong week, competing in the championship final of the 200 backstroke where he placed fifth overall with a B cut of 1:41.39. Senior Sean Workman also scored for the Hokies, turning in a 1:44.55 to finish 14th overall.
The Hokies recorded their fifth school record of the night and 10th of the week in the final event as the 400 free relay team of Jake Lamparella, Ian Ho, Thomas Hallock and Lane Stone hit an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 2:51.23. The7 broke the previous record of 2:54.13 set in 2015 by Owen Burns, Lucas Bureau, Brandon Fiala and CJ Fiala.
Lamparella gave the Hokies a 15th place finish in the 100 free (43.13) while Ho was 19th (43.23). Lamparella's prelim time of 42.89 moved him into second on Tech's top-times list. Both recorded NCAA B cuts. Simon Shi added a 19th place (1:58.40) finish in the 200 breaststroke for the Hokies.
"We have a lot of work to do," said Lopez Miro. "We're going to go to NCAAs and we will learn how we react in that meet. We will just continue to keep putting pieces together and building the blocks so hopefully in a few years we'll be fighting to be at the top of the ACC and NCAA. One of the impressive things is that a lot of the team is freshmen and sophomores so they will be back for the next couple years."
The Hokies finished fourth overall as a team, edging out Florida State by just 1.5 points.
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
NC State – 1396.5
Louisville – 1135.5
Virginia – 1108
Virginia Tech – 820.5
Florida State – 819
Notre Dame – 687
Duke – 624
Georgia Tech – 550
Pitt – 508
North Carolina – 388.5
Miami – 161 (Diving only)
Boston College – 159
Tech will next compete at the NCAA Championships March 27-30 in Austin, Texas.
