Swimming and diving team takes fourth at ACCs

The men’s swimming and diving team rounded out an impressive performance during the ACC Championships in College Park, Md./ Feb. 22-25. The Jackets ended their season on a high note, edging out Clemson and North Carolina State to finish in fourth place.

The championships ended with Virginia wining its eighth-straight ACC title with a total of 694 points. Florida State came in second with 685.5 points and North Carolina earned third with 496.5. Tech landed fourth with 371 points and was followed by N.C. State (362), Virginia Tech (334.5), Clemson (293), Maryland (222.5), Duke (99), Boston College (70) and Miami (37).

Freshman Greg Tunning commented about the event. “We had lost to both N.C. State and Clemson in our dual meets with them earlier in the season, so it was pretty fulfilling to come out of the meet in front of them,” he said.

“Not many people thought we were going to be able to do that. The meet for us was really a team effort. We were able to hold off really strong teams and finish in fourth place,” Tunning said.

The seniors on the team helped lead the Jackets to a strong finish.

Senior Sam Morgan led the Jackets and garnered All-ACC honors in the 1650-yard freestyle by finishing second with an NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 15:06.69. He also placed fourth in the 400-yard individual medley (3:52.72) and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle (4:26.35) while also clocking NCAA ‘B’ standard times in both races.

After the second day of competition Morgan clocked 4:26.62 in the 500-yard freestyle to finish seventh, and junior Ryan Bishop finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley with an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 1:49.36.

Senior Jason Howard broke the school record in the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.36 seconds, and finished eighth in the finals with a time of 20.48 seconds. Senior Teemu Kettunen finished 10th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.54 seconds.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Kettunen, Howard, Brian Huff and Ofer Finkler swam a season-best time of 1:21.15 to finish in sixth place.

Bishop, freshman Noah Copeland and Kettunen and Morgan posted NCAA ‘B’ standards during the Friday preliminaries and advanced to the finals.

Both Morgan and Bishop qualified for ‘B’ times in the 400-yard individual medley with Morgan posting a time of 3:53:44 and Bishop a time of 3:53:58.

Kettunen came in third in the preliminaries of the 100-yard butterfly and posted a time of 48.55 seconds to earn an NCAA ‘B’ as well as setting a personal record. Copeland swam a personal best time of 1:38.09 in the 200-yard freestyle. Junior Alex Williams achieved a mark 55.79 seconds—a lifetime-best in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Four Jackets qualified for the consolation finals. Howard and Finkler swam in the 200-yard freestyle with Howard posting a season-best time of 1:38.58 and Finkler swimming a lifetime-best time of 1:39.69. Sophomore Jason Bourgeois posted his lifetime-best time of 50.09 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke and sophomore Onur Uras swam a season-best time of 49.80 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly.

Morgan improved his NCAA ‘B’ standard time from earlier and finished fourth in the 400-yard individual medley while Williams posted an NCAA ‘B’ cut in the 100-yard breaststroke to finish fifth.

Bishop clocked a season-best time of 2:01.65 in the preliminaries of the 200-yard breaststroke to advance to the championship finals.

Sophomore Rob Miller posted an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 15:21.16 in the 1650-yard free to finish in seventh place for the Jackets. The men’s 400 free relay team of Howard, Huff, Finkler and Kettunen broke the school record with a time of 2:59.52 to finish in seventh place.

Bishop clocked a time of 2:02.29 in the 200-yard breaststroke to finish in eighth place for Tech.

In the consolation finals, Kettunen finished 13th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.28 seconds, Uras finished 10th in the 200-yard butterfly with a season-best mark of 1:49.34, and Williams finished 13th in the 200-yard breast with a season-best time of 2:02.49.

Redshirt freshmen Chris Ewald, Mauricio Sousa and David Rifkin competed in the bonus finals for the Jackets. Ewald finished 18th in the 200-yard butterfly with a season-best time of 1:51.27, Sousa posted a time of 1:53.23 in the 200-yard backstroke to finish 20th and Rifkin finished 21st in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.83.

The Jackets will host the NCAA last chance meet in the Aquatic Center tomorrow. Tech will also host the 2006 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 23-25.