The Virginia men's swimming and diving team raced to a 110-point lead after the first full day of events of the ACC Championships to finish with a score of 314 points. Florida State and Georgia Tech were next in line with 204 and 157.7 points respectively.
The Cavalier men won three out of five events in Thursday night's meet at the AFC and placed second in another. The Virginia trio of sophomore Fran Crippen, senior Ian Prichard, and freshman John Millen swept the 500-yard freestyle. All three had NCAA automatic qualifying times. Crippen led the way with a time of 4:17.90 to win his second straight ACC championship in that event.
"I knew it was going to be neck and neck the whole time," Crippen said. "Being next to [Ian] we were really able to feed off each other. And I think that with Millen right next to him, it really helped him out to. We were able to work together and I think that was the biggest thing that helped us sweep."
The Cavaliers had a 1-2-4 finish in the next event, the 200 individual medley. Senior Bo Greenwood become only the fourth man in ACC history to win that event three years in a row by swimming an NCAA consideration time of 1:48.10. Sophomore Ryan Berg placed second and senior Luke Wagner came in fourth. Both men also swam NCAA consideration times.
"All year long the team talked about dominating -- that's been our key word," Greenwood said. "The individual events -- everyone gets excited for them -- but I think people get more excited watching their teammates swim. I get more excited watching Ian, Fran, and John Millen sweep the 500 than I do when I win."
Virginia came into the 200 freestyle relay tied for the fifth fastest time from preliminaries, but the Cavalier group of seniors Adam Kerpelman and Jon Haag, freshman Greg Imboden, and sophomore Ethan McCoy touched first with an NCAA consideration time of 1:19.94. Relays are worth double the points and the value of winning that race was not lost on the team.
"It's just something about performing for [my teammates]," Haag said. "When I got done and all those guys were coming over and just jumping on top of me. That's the best feeling in the world. When you start thinking that swimming is tough and the training sucks and this and that, when you experience that, it erases all that negative feeling, because I can't imagine doing it for any other reason than for that relay. That was just awesome."
This was the second relay victory for the Cavalier men, as the team won the 800-yard freestyle Wednesday night and placed third in the 200 medley relay.
Virginia senior diver Pete Amstutz placed second in the 1-meter diving with an NCAA zone B qualifying score of 310.85. Clemson's Eric Shulick won the event with a score of 314.60. N.C. State's Cullen Jones swam to victory in the evening's other event, the 50 free with a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 19.70.
After Thursday night's performance, the Cavaliers are well on their way towards meeting their lofty goal of scoring 900 points for the championships, something that has never been done before. And the team feels better days are ahead.
"All of our top people in their individual races are just going to be outstanding," Greenwood said. "I think from here on out, there's no reason we shouldn't win every event."
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