H2Okies up to 27th at NCAA Men's Championships

AUSTIN, Texas -- Senior diver Ryan Hawkins earned his second Honorable Mention All-American honors in as many days on Friday to lead the Virginia Tech swimming and diving teams on the second day of competition at the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Texas.

Hawkins, who finished 10th in the 1-meter event on Thursday, tallied 375.65 points in the preliminaries of the 3-meter event on Friday afternoon to punch his ticket to the evening’s consolation final. There, the senior racked up 408.40 points to take home 12th place and his sixth career All-American honors.

Freshman T.J. Shinholser, who was in contention for a finals spot for much of the day, finished with a score of 345.90 to capture 21st place, while junior Kyle Butts finished 31st with 307.65 points.

Freshman Robert Owen kicked off his meet with a 3:47.95 in the 400 IM prelims, good for 30th place, while fellow freshman Jan Switkowski took 31st in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:35.79.

In the 100 breaststroke, junior Harrison Cefalo (54.05) and freshman Brandon Fiala (54.28) took home 34th and 38th, while junior Collin Higgins wrapped up the day’s individual swims with a 46.98 in the 100 backstroke, good for 31st.

The 800 freestyle relay team capped off the second day of competition for the swimmers with an 18th-place finish, as Switkowski, sophomore Lucas Bureau and juniors Owen Burns and Morgan Latimer touched the wall with a time of 6:24.16.

After two days and 14 events, Tech currently sits in 27th place with 12 points, in the middle of a tightly-bunched group of teams and just four points behind 23rd place.

The H2Okies will be back in action on Friday, as the relay squads will return to the pool for the 400 freestyle relay preliminaries. The 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly are also all set go off. Diving will wrap up its week with the platform events tomorrow afternoon as well.

Prelims will begin at 12 p.m. EST tomorrow, while finals are scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Live streaming will also be available throughout the day, including on ESPN3 for the evening’s finals.

Links to championship central, live results and finals results from Friday’s races can be found above.