AUSTIN, Texas – Freshman Antani Ivanov wrapped up the 2019 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships on a high note for the Hokies, claiming All-America Honorable Mention honors on the final night of competition in Austin, Texas.
Ivanov broke his own record in the 200 fly during the morning prelims, swimming a time of 1:41.06 to finish ninth. In the evening finals, Ivanov placed 12th with a time of 1:41.48. Fellow freshman Blake Manoff also competed in the 200 fly, placing 31st with a 1:43.88.
"The last day was a very good day for the Hokies," said head coach Sergio Lopez Miro. "We had another school record with Antani in the 200 fly. Blake had a rough final 75, but his time is still two seconds faster than when he came into Virginia Tech. For a freshman like him to qualify for NCAA with the time that he did was very good. We are very proud of him, he did a good job. And he did an amazing job of the 800 free relay on the first day too."
Sophomore Sam Tornqvist also had a great showing for Tech, finishing 17th overall in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:41.06.
"Sam had a very good back today. He missed the B final by one one-hundreth of a second. I think Sam is very happy with his trajection this year and the way he has done things."
Lane Stone placed 37th in the 1650 free with a time of 15:10.52.
"I think Lane had a hard time in the end. He got out very fast and had a couple of bad turns that lost his rhythm a bit. We are very proud of him though, he had a very good meet."
In the 400 free relay the team of Thomas Hallock, Ian Ho, Norbert Szabo and Lane Stone placed 23rd overall with a tally of 2:53.68.
"I thought our 400 free relay was a very good relay even though we didn't make the finals. We had to lead-off Tommy and he dropped six-tenths of a second. He was 43.3, and it was very impressive to watch him do that. As we said earlier in the week Jake Lamparella is sick and had to sit out, so we put Norbert into the relay. Tommy, Ian, Norbert and Lane did a very good job in that relay."
Freshman Noah Zawadzki also had a good day, placing 21st in the platform event with a score of 312.00.
"I think overall NCAAs has been a very good meet for us. We finished 35th in the country, so that is good. I think last year we only had diving points so this year it was good to put some swimming points on the board. We had four 17s which cut us out from making it into the finals and then Antani this morning missing the top-8 by one one-hundreth of a second. So those were tough, but what is good for us is that most of our swimmers are freshmen and sophomores which shows the future is bright for us."