F | |
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William & Mary | 2 |
Virginia Tech | 5 |
GREENSBORO, N.C. - The No. 24 Virginia Tech men’s swimming team completed day three at the ACC Championships in third place after a gold medal performance from Robert Owen and a silver medal from Brandon Fiala.
The Hokies got their second gold medal performance of the 2016 ACC Championships as Owen swam a 3:41.08 in the 400 IM to set a new pool record as well as the Virginia Tech school record. It’s also a NCAA A cut time as he defended his title after winning gold in the 400 IM at last year’s ACC Championships.
Fiala earned his second medal of the meet as he took silver in the 100 breast, narrowly finishing in second place by .01 seconds. He swam a 51.86 in the preliminaries to set an ACC meet record and break his own school record. The time is also good for a NCAA A cut.
“Robert Owen’s victory tonight was thrilling. The energy he had coming home to pass the Louisville swimmer was awesome and really charged up our team. I’m very proud of our fight as we did not have as strong of a morning but we came back and seized all of our chances. For two straight nights we’ve maintained or improved upon our position in our races at night when it’s for points. It’s really kept us in the meet against UNC heading into tomorrow,” head coach Ned Skinner said.
The Hokies are officially in fourth place after three days and trailing only No. 7 NC State, No. 13 Louisville and No. 18 North Carolina. Tech has a total of 600 points and the men's platform scores from last week still to be added tomorrow. With platform diving scores included, the Hokies are in third and ahead of UNC.
Zach Switzer also made the A final in the 400 IM and finished eighth to earn 22 points as he swam a 3:51.34 in the event. Michael Craddock finished fourth in the B final of the vent with a 3:48.63 to earn 15 points. The Hokies took 69 points in the 400 IM from the three swimmers.
Lucas Bureau took sixth place in the 200 free A final with a time of 1:35.10 to earn 24 points. Adam Stacklin also earned points as he finished sixth in the C final.
Norbert Szabo and Brent Benedict finished first and second in the C final of the 100 fly with teammate Harrison Pierce finishing not far behind in sixth. The trio of underclassmen combined to earn 19 points in the event.
Benedict swam a 48.16 in the 100 back to finish fourth in the C final while Sean Workman finished sixth with a time of 48.25. The pair combined for eight team points.
The Hokies finished the night sixth in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:09.59 to earn 50 team points and an NCAA B cut.
“I’m very proud of Lucas Bureau and the leadership he’s exhibiting. In that 200 free style, in that last relay, he really kept those guys together to get that NCAA B cut,” Skinner said.
The Hokies will start the final day at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries for the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 1650 free. The finals of those events will begin at 6 p.m. on ESPN3 in addition to the 400 free relay.
For updates on Virginia Tech swimming & diving, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_SwimDive