The last time the University of Virginia men's swimming and diving team defeated Tennessee, the current seniors on the team were merely seniors in high school. Although all have shared success over their careers, no one on the present roster had experienced the thrill of beating a team like the Volunteers until Saturday.
In arguably their most versatile performance of the season, the 11th-ranked Cavalier men defeated Tennessee, 135-106.
"I'm absolutely thrilled with how well we performed today," coach Mark Bernardino said. "I think we just had a lot of will and determination and we swam with character and poise and intelligence and we were able to beat a really great team."
Virginia (5-1) won eight of the first 12 events, beginning with the 400-yard medley relay. The team of Luke Wagner, Vanja Rogulj, Michael Raab and Adam Kerpelman attained a NCAA-B qualifying time with their season-best time of 3:16.97, nearly three seconds better than the closest competition.
Fran Crippen won the first of his two events in the 1000-yard freestyle, posting a time of 9:00.11. He was followed by freshman teammate John Millen in second place. Crippen also led the team in their sweep of the top spots in the 500-yard free, finishing with a NCAA-B time. Senior Ian Prichard finished second, followed by Millen in third and freshman Stefan Hirniak in fourth place. Prichard was also the victor in the 200-yard free, edging out Tennessee's Casey Dauw by one-tenth of a second.
Other individual event winners for the Cavaliers included Raab in the 200-yard butterfly. Juniors Chris Cooper and Scott DeMarco also scored points in the event, finishing in second and fourth places, respectively.
Rogulj continued to dominate the breaststroke events, winning the 200-yard contest with a NCAA-B time of 1:59.75.
Wagner charged ahead of the field in the 200-yard backstroke to snag the victory. He was followed by teammate Bo Greenwood in second place. Greenwood also placed second in a close race in the 200-yard individual medley, falling short of Tennessee's Andrew Bree by just one-tenth of a second.
Aside from the well-rounded effort put forth by the entire team, the most decisive events for the Cavaliers against Tennessee were the sprint freestyle races. Virginia started out strong in the 50-yard free, with senior John Haag and freshman Greg Imboden finishing second and third. Then, in the closest race of the day, Kerpelman edged Volunteer sophomore Tyler Gustafson by five one-hundredths of a second to take the top spot.
"It was a huge meet for the sprint crew," said Kerpelman, the men's ACC Swimmer of the Week. "Perennially, Tennessee is a huge sprint team, so to get up and beat them is a big deal."
Last season, the meet was tied going into the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Tennessee's dominance in the relay resulted in a win for the team. Saturday, the Cavaliers didn't need to win the relay -- they had the meet locked up prior to the event -- but Bernardino emphasized, "We had to win that relay for pride."
Virginia's team of Haag, Wagner, sophomore Ethan McCoy and Kerpelman were victorious in the 400-yard free relay, capping off a notable all-around team effort.
"It was a big day for the whole team," Kerpelman said. "It's one of those ones we won out of depth."
Virginia's victory over Tennessee is its first in five years and only the second in seven tries against the Vols.
Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams return to action Saturday, Jan. 17, when they host ACC rival N.C. State.
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