For the fourth consecutive year - and for the 12th time in the last 13 years - the Virginia men's swimming and diving team won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships Saturday in Atlanta, Ga.
The Cavaliers collected 820 points during the four-day event to top second-place North Carolina's 588 points and leave Florida State's 511.5 points as a distant third.
The Virginia men entered the meet ranked No. 10 in the nation, and they defended their No. 1 ACC ranking with a first-place finish in the competition's opening event, the 800 freestyle relay. 2011 marks the fourth-consecutive year that seniors Scot Robison and Matt McLean have won the event at the championship meet.
"With the bookends of McLean and Robison, that's one of the better relays in the country," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said.
The relay team of McLean, senior Taylor Smith, junior David Karasek and Robison finished the race in 6:16.75, the second-fastest time in Virginia history. The first-place team finished an impressive eight seconds ahead of the second-place Tarheels, whose fourth leg touched at 6:24.07.
The second day of racing included the preliminaries and finals for the 500 freestyle, 200 meter individual medley and 50 meter freestyle, with the 200 freestyle relay occurring during the evening. Ten Virginia swimmers reached the evening's finals and the Cavaliers finished the night in first place with 280 points.
The men entered the finals tied for first place with Clemson at 72 points, but Virginia broke away after it swept the 500 freestyle.
McLean touched at 4:13.53 to win the event for the fourth year in a row - his 15th overall ACC title and his seventh individual championship during his career at Virginia.\n"There were things I can do to improve on," McLean said of the 500. "It was good to have that many teammates in the heat and for everyone to swim well."
During the third day of the finals, swimmers competed in the 400 individual medley, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and the 400 medley relay. The Cavaliers were represented by four swimmers in both the 400 individual medley and the 200 freestyle.
"We stayed very competitive and put people in a position where they are chasing us instead of us chasing them," Bernardino said. "That's a good place to be."
Robison won his second-straight title in the 200 freestyle with a 1:32.52finish. McLean followed in second at 1:34.41 and Karasek finished fourth at 1:35.80.
Entering the last day of competition, Virginia topped the leaderboard with 544 points, well ahead of North Carolina's 405 and Florida State's 338.5.
The Cavaliers maintained their lead throughout the day with McLean's win in the 1650 freestyle at 14:42.73. McLean later recorded his 17th overall ACC title during the 400 freestyle relay.
McLean also earned his third title as the ACC Swimmer of the Meet, an honor he also received in 2008 and 2009. McLean's motivation at this meet came from something deeper than merely individual and team success. He was swimming for Fran Crippen, an 11-time All-American at Virginia who died in October while competing in an open water race in the United Arab Emirates.
"More than anybody on the team, [McLean] swam for Fran," Bernardino said. "There was a real bond between those two guys."
Prior to Saturday night's finals, the Cavalier swimmers added the initials "FC" at the bottom of the large block "V" they traditionally write on their chests.
"It was really special to me because that was Fran's event and he was a tremendous friend, competitor, mentor, hero and role model for me," McLean said. "I absolutely love him and it was nice to have a good race to honor him."
To close out the four-day competition, Robison earned second place in the 100 freestyle at 42.71, Grey was the runner-up in the 200 breaststroke at 1:56.61, and Houser narrowly finished second in the 200 butterfly at 1:44.68.
McLean, Robison, junior Peter Geissinger and sophomore Tom Barrett then won the 400 freestyle relay for the fourth year in a row with an ACC-record time of 2:51.26.\nTogether, the team returns to Charlottesville with 16 individual championship medals - four each for Robison and McLean, who both won 17 such titles during their careers.
"I hope our fourth-year class has left a good legacy for the other three classes here and all the upcoming classes," McLean said.
The Virginia women also won their fourth straight and ninth overall ACC title last week in Georgia, which makes the 2011 conference championship the first time since 1996 that one school swept both the ACC men's and women's swimming titles for four consecutive seasons.
"This was a team win," Bernardino said.
Both Cavalier squads will attempt to continue their trend of top-tier finishes at the NCAA Championships beginning in mid-March.
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