H2Okies finish fifth at Women's ACC Championships

ATLANTA – The Women’s Swimming and Diving Atlantic Coast Conference Championship concluded this evening with the final seven events of the meet. The University of Virginia pulled ahead in the final few events to win this year’s championships with 776 points. North Carolina dropped back into second with 734, followed by Florida State in third (417). Maryland took fourth at the meet with 397 and the H2Okies overtook Miami to finish fifth with 358. The Hurricanes dropped down to sixth with 349, followed by Duke in seventh (262.5). NC State (159.5), host Georgia Tech (152) and Clemson (151) were all within 10 points of each other, and Boston College brought up the rear with 60.

Erika Hajnal picked up 15 key points for the H2Okies, just missing a medal with a fourth-place finish in the 1650 free at 16:14.03. Laura Simon finished ninth in 16:30.45 and Lauren Ritter followed in 10th (16:32.95). Becky Flora then finished in 14th with a time of 16:55.02.

Brittany Boone was the highest finisher for the H2Okies in the 200 back, placing second in the C heat for an 18th-place finish in 1:59.58. Katarina Filova and Steffi Drechsel both swam in the B heat of the 100 freestyle finals, placing in 14th (50.37) and 16th (50.80) respectively. Keri Sink then earned a 10th-place finish in the 200 breast with a “B” cut time of 2:14.26. Meaghan Holloway wrapped up the individual swimming competition with a seventh-place finish in the 200 butterfly.

Logan Shinholser took home the H2Okies’ first gold medal of the year, winning the platform diving event with a final score of 449.15, overtaking Duke’s Nick McCrory who won the first two diving events and the platform prelims. Ryan Hawkins earned his third top-five finish of the meet, finishing fifth with a 385.30.

Cara Murnan and Carissa Santora both finished in the top eight in the women’s platform event. Murnan placed sixth with a 264.30 while Santora scored a 209.10 for an eighth-place finish. Sarah Milton followed closely, scoring 233.60 in the prelims to finish ninth.

The H2Okies then closed out the meet with a sixth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. Heather Savage led off for the squad, followed by Filova, Drechsel and Ritter, as they swam a season-best time of 3:22.19.

The ACC Championships continue Wednesday, Feb. 23, when the Yellow Jackets will host the men’s swimming championships. The first race of the four-day meet, the 200 medley relay, will begin at 6 p.m.