Saturday afternoon, in the last home race of his career, senior and co-captain Stefan Hirniak was poised to break the AFC's pool record in the 200 Butterfly. He fell short by only two tenths of a second.
"I knew it was my last chance to try and break the record," Hirniak said. "We'd had a pretty tough week of training but I decided to put a fast skin on and give it a shot. I was two tenths off but that is only a tenth off my best time, so I'm still pretty excited."
While Hirniak narrowly missed the record, his season's best performance of 1:49.49 is an NCAA 'B-cut' qualifying time.
Prior to the meet, Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said he hoped the majority of his swimmers would post season's best times. Unfortunately for Maryland, that is exactly what happened.
"We had some great performances today," Bernardino said. "Freshman Will Trainer swam very well in the freestyle events. Also, PJ Sullivan looked smooth and efficient, Pat Mellors had a very good day and Katy Bland bounced back from a couple of rough weeks to swim some nice freestyle."
In the 1000 Freestyle, freshman Darren Ankosko won in 9:14.87, his best time this season by more than four seconds. He also took first in the 500 Freestyle (4:31.11), an exhibition event.
"I like to say that if you are well prepared there is no pressure," Bernardino said. "Darren had been swimming as if he felt pressure but today he swam as if he was prepared and pressure wasn't a factor. And it was very, very important for our team to see him do that."
Since it was not only the Cavalier's last home meet but also the last dual meet of the regular season, emotions ran high for Virginia's seniors and their teammates.
"We have all gotten close to the fourth-years and it is sad that this was the last dual meet of their lives," freshman Mei Christensen said. "But I'm feeling great because as a team a lot of us had either season's best or even personal best times and it was a great way to finish off the dual meet season."
Bland, a senior, led a 1-4 sweep in the 200 Freestyle and senior Rory Schmidt won the 500 Freestyle. Tyler Gordon, in her last meet at the AFC, achieved two lifetime bests. On the men's side, senior Greg Imboden won the 100 Freestyle (46.15).
"Emotions were really high," Hirniak said. "It's hard to think that this was my last dual meet here, but it's been a great four years, and I'm excited I went out on a high note."
With their 124-115 victory over the Terrapins, the Cavalier men will now head into the conference championships undefeated in the ACC (6-0) and 8-2 overall. The women improved to 7-3 on the season and 5-1 in the ACC. Given the weekend's outstanding performances, the men and women should be feeling confident about the postseason.
"We will see what happens in the coming weeks," Bernardino said. "There are no guarantees, no certainties, and we have to work hard in our final phases of training. We need to have the right mental approach and we can't make mistakes. We are going to need to swim a perfect meet to win either the women's or the men's crown."
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