Complacency can be a fatal flaw. If a precedent has been set, then there is no need to expand upon it. Well if the Virginia men's swimming and diving team followed the norm, it would have stopped six years ago.
The Cavaliers won their seventh straight ACC Championship title, ninth overall, Saturday in Atlanta. Though they did not win by last year's astounding margin of 311.5 points, the Cavaliers easily defeated runner-up Florida State by 146.5 points.
"The conference is better this year that it has been the last two or three years," Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. "Georgia Tech, Florida State and Virginia Tech brought a level of swimming that we have not seen in years. This was certainly the toughest and hard-fought victory that we have had in the course of the streak since the first one."
The first victory of the streak was a slim 6.5 point win over Florida State in 1999.
"It is not getting easier because of the subtle pressure of maintaining that championship streak," Bernardino said. "It can play with the minds of the athletes. We had to avoid swimming to protect the streak, but swimming to be as good as we could be."
The fear of breaking the streak has the potential to mess with the minds of the Cavalier swimmers. Yet for one Virginia athlete, senior Luke Anderson, the later option proved to be the only option as he swam better than any other swimmer in the meet.
"Luke had his greatest collegiate meet to date," Bernardino said. "He put together one of the best ACC championship meets that any Virginia athlete has had in a long time. He was spectacular. Every time he stepped on the block there was great anticipation as to what he was going to do from his teammates, coaches and even the crowd. He was the story of the meet, individually."
The Charlottesville native turned in a record-breaking performance practically every time he jumped into the pool. After winning the 100 and 200 freestyles, finishing second in the 50 freestyle and swimming on the three winning Cavalier relay squads, Anderson was awarded the Most Valuable Swimmer of the ACC Championship award. The award is the second of his career after he earned his first in 2001 as a sophomore.
On the first day of the meet, Anderson got his team off to a quick start by helping anchor the school-record 800 free relay and Georgia Tech pool record 200 free.
Anderson touched an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 19.74 seconds in the 50 freestyle on the second day, just 0.13 seconds behind N.C. State's Cullen Jones.
With his first place performance on Day Three in the 200 freestyle, Anderson earned an NCAA automatic qualifying bid with his 1:35.96 time. Fellow Cavalier sophomores Stefan Hirniak and John Millen finished in second and third, respectively, to earn Virginia a top three sweep of the event.
Even though Anderson and other Virginia swimmers turned in spectacular performances, the Cavaliers are still shooting for another record.
"It is not our goal to just win the seventh title, but the eighth and ninth," junior Fran Crippen said. "Our team wants to start something that future teams can build upon. We want to break the record for 12 because N.C. State holds the record for 12 titles. We want to look at that as something for the future as this program progresses forward."
As Virginia swimming advances deeper into the ACC record books, there is a need to stop, reflect and be thankful for the successes of the past as well.
"Each and every championship is like a precious commodity," Bernardino said. "Every championship is different -- they each have their own personality."
The mantle in the Aquatic Fitness Center may crumble under the weight of seven ACC title trophies -- unless the hard work and preparation for the upcoming NCAA championships is there to hold it up.
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