As the dual meet season winds down, the Virginia men's and women's swim teams have one more fish to fry before reaching the ACC championship meet next week.
The teams must first face ACC rival Maryland tomorrow in College Park, to finish off the regular season. Both the men and women succeeded in their meet against Pittsburgh last Sunday, and are well-rested for the matchup.
"We haven't really gotten any rest at all this year, so I think the best is yet to come," said senior captain Amy Baly. "Because once we do get a bit of rest, it's going to be pretty amazing."
The No. 19 Maryland women's team enters this meet after a big win against North Carolina, improving their record to 10-0 overall, 6-0 in the ACC. They have been lead by juniors Megan Knepper, Elizabeth Lavell and Cynthia Wier, who added two individual wins apiece in their last meet. Maryland also dominated the relays, winning both the 400 and 200 yard medley relays. The Terps have never won an ACC regular season championship, but must defeat the Virginia women to claim the title.
The Maryland men, however, lost to North Carolina in the same meet last week. Although they won six events, the men dropped their record to 4-7 overall, 1-4 in the ACC. Senior Mark Hill lead the Terps with wins in the 50 and 100 freestyle races, while junior Erik Weinberg dominated the 100 and 200 backstrokes.
The Virginia women, ranked 18th nationally, improved their record to 6-3 in the meet against Pittsburgh, winning 10 out of 13 events. Baly won the 200-yard individual medley, and first year Rory Schmidt placed first in the 1000 freestyle and 500 freestyle races.
The No. 9 men's team won eight out of nine events against the same foe, to improve their record to 9-1. Junior Michael Raab was selected as ACC swimmer of the week, after his win in the 200 butterfly race, his third place finish in the 500 freestyle and participation in the winning 400 relay race. Senior captain Luke Wagner won both the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke races, while senior Adam Kerpelman recorded wins in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle races.
Both teams are concentrating on how to use this meet to improve and concentrate on small things that need to be perfected before the ACC championship meet.
"I think all year we've been trying to do the little things right, like starts and turns," Wagner said. "And I think towards the end of the year, that's always a big focus in practice."
Since the Maryland meet is the last one before the ACC championship meet, it has a very different atmosphere surrounding it.
"Often times you'll want to give your athletes an opportunity to swim," said Virginia coach Mark Bernardino. "Most dual meets, they swim their best or their second best events. We're going to take a look at some people in their third best event, just so they're ready, they've raced it and they're prepared to do that event at the conference as well."
The Maryland meet should be one of the most challenging in the dual meet season for the women.
"They're actually swimming really fast this year," Baly said. "We're expecting them to be pretty rested for us. We're just going to have to all come together and stay real focused."
Bernardino is confident that the Cavaliers will continue to perform well in both the next meet and the championship series of meets to come.
"It's probably the best women's team that we'll see this season in a dual meet situation," Bernardino said. "They're an outstanding dual meet team. I like to think that we're more lined up to be a better championship team than we are a dual meet team. I just like to think that our men can keep on keeping on and doing well what they've done well all year long."
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