The Virginia men's and women's swimming and diving teams manhandled conference competitor N.C. State Saturday afternoon, winning 21 out of 26 eventsto remain undefeated in the ACC.
The 11th-ranked men (6-1, 3-0 ACC) won 10 events en route to a 155-83 victory, and the 17th-ranked women (4-2, 3-0) took 11 events to prevail 147-91.
The Virginia men's divers had their best performance of the year, as senior Pete Amstutz set school records on both the one- and three-meter boards. Amstutz registered 365.33 points for a first place finish on the one-meter board. Sophomore Andrew Barber was second with 363.83 points. Both crushed Amstutz's old record of 334.13 points. Amstutz and Barber also finished second and third, respectively, on the three-meter board. Amstutz's 336.83 points were good enough for another school record.
"We really focused on trying to beat" N.C. State's Vitor Assuncao, Amstutz said. "He was ranked number one in the ACC, and everyone's been talking about how good he is. We worked on mechanics and tried to make our finishes a little better."
Coach Mark Bernardino emphasized the significance of the divers in Saturday's meet.
"Their performance was critically important," he said. "I think some of the fire from the swimmers is catching on with the divers, and I think they want to feel as though they're major contributors in big meets."
The Virginia men's swimmers continued to ride on their success from last weekend. Seniors Ian Prichard and Adam Kerpelman both won a pair of individual events for the Cavaliers. Prichard got victories in the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle events while Kerpelman won both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle.
Other individual event winners for the Cavalier men were junio Michael Raab in the 200-yard butterfly, senior Luke Wagner in the 200-yard backstroke and sophomore Fran Crippen in the 400-yard individual medley.
The Virginia women followed the example set by the men's team last weekend against Tennessee, as freshman Shannon Hogan had the best meet of her young collegiate career in the sprint freestyle events.
Hogan got started in the 50-yard freestyle, leading the Cavaliers in a sweep of the top spots with her personal best time of 24.19. She led the team again in the 100-yard freestyle with another personal-best time of 52.77.
"I was really excited about my swims," Hogan said. "I've been focusing in practice a lot on my starts and turns, so I was excited about my times."
The Virginia women boasted six other individual winners: Sophomore Rachael Burke in the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman Katie Bland in the 200-yard freestyle, sophomore Elaine Bennett in the 200-yard butterfly, sophomore Brielle White in the 200-yard backstroke, freshman Kimi Kelly in the 500-yard freestyle and senior Amy Baly in the 400-yard individual medley.
"I'm very pleased with our consistency, our attitude and the focus in the meet," Bernardino said. "I'm pleased with the intensity in training and I'm looking forward to a couple good meets next week."
Virginia will face its toughest conference competition next weekend, as they travel to Duke Saturday and Chapel Hill Sunday to finish the weekend with the No. 22/15 Tar Heels.
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