While most University students were at home enjoying winter break in its entirety, Virginia's swimmers and divers had to report back to Charlottesville and their intense practice schedule January 2.
Their effort led the men's team to a triumphant victory over Tennessee last weekend, and both the men and women are eager for another win as they host ACC competitor N.C. State tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Aquatic and Fitness Center.
"We have swum an incredible amount," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "Our training volume is extremely high right now, and the intensity of the training we're doing in the weight room and in dry land training is extremely high."
Freestyle specialist Adam Kerpelman said the intensity has grown continually.
"We're coming off the hardest week of training we've had so far this year," he said.
In their last meet, the men (5-1, 2-0 ACC) gained redemption against Tennessee following four straight years of defeat, including a disappointing loss last season which came down to the final event.
The Cavaliers have consistently received top performances from sophomore Fran Crippen and company in the distance freestyle events, junior Michael Raab in the butterfly, freshman Vanja Rogulj in the breaststroke and senior Luke Wagner in the backstroke throughout the season. Virginia's sprinters had struggled early on, but Kerpelman and fellow senior Jon Haag led the sprint freestyle crew to its most celebrated performance of the season against the Volunteers.
"We have been waiting for this kind of breakthrough meet" for Kerpelman and Haag, Bernardino said. "They finally today made that big step forward, and I think that's really going to help them move forward in the remaining meets this season."
The last meet for the Virginia women (3-2, 2-0) took place over a month ago when they placed sixth at the three-day Texas A&M Fall Invitational in College Station.
The distance freestyle trio of freshmen Kimi Kelly and Rory Schmidt and sophomore Rachael Burke continued to dictate the competition, taking three of the top four spots. Kelly also attained a NCAA automatic qualifying time with her first place finish.
Also scoring points for the Cavaliers in the meet were sophomore Corey Berg in the 200-yard backstroke and freshman Jenny Steiner and sophomore Elaine Bennett in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The Wolfpack's most recent meet was last weekend at Florida State. The men (5-2, 1-2) won seven events before losing, 134-103. The women dropped to 3-4 on the season with their 148-93 loss and remain without a win in four ACC meets.
Last season, both the Virginia men and women routed the Wolfpack after over a month away from competition. In the women's meet, the Cavaliers won ten out of 13 events en route to a 153-87 victory. The men cruised to a 156-85 win, taking 11 of 13 events in the process.
One-meter diving is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. and swimming events will commence at 1 p.m. tomorrow, with both the men and women looking to remain undefeated in the conference.
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