Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG - Thirteen participants from the Virginia Tech women’s swimming & diving team are set to compete at the NCAA Women’s Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, from Thursday through Saturday in search of the program’s fourth-straight top-25 finish.
A few weeks ago at the ACC Championships, behind a third-place effort that included four swimming medals, Tech’s swimmers recorded times that qualified them for the NCAA competition.
Rookie Klaudia Nazieblo led the way, earning two individual bronze medals, one bronze relay medal and setting three school records in the 100 back, 200 back and 200 fly.
Sophomore Fiona Donnelly was also superb at ACCs, winning the bronze medal and setting a school record in the 400 IM.
The diving team travelled to Buffalo, New York, for the Zone A Championships to earn NCAA qualification and made quite a splash at the region’s event. An unprecedented four divers qualified, the most from any school at the NCAA Championships.
Kelli Stockton, who earned fifth at ACCs in the platform and the 3-meter, won both of the same events at zones and earned automatic qualification in the 1-meter with a fourth-place finish.
Four-time ACC Most Valuable Diver Kaylea Arnett also earned qualification in all three events. After two golds (3-meter, platform) and a bronze (1-meter) at ACCs, the senior superstar won the 1-meter qualifying event. Last year at NCAAs, Arnett earned a bronze medal in the 1-meter and Honorable-Mention All-American honors in both the 3-meter and platform.
The last two years have seen the H2Okies finish 24th at NCAAs, but at this year’s ACC Championships, they scored more points than in any other year in program history with 1018. Tech’s highest NCAA finish came in 2012 when they earned 18th.
The championships will begin on Thursday with the prelims for the 200 free relay, followed by the 500 free, the 200 IM, the 50 free, the 400 medley relay and the 1-meter diving trials.
Each day’s swimming prelims will begin at 11 a.m. with diving prelims beginning at 1:45 p.m. The finals will start at 7 p.m.
ESPN3 will carry the finals on Friday and Saturday, with Sam Gore on play-by-play and Rowdy Gaines and Cynthia Potter providing commentary. GoPack.com will stream all other sessions.
Live results will be available here.
Host information, including parking, hotel, dining and schedule information can be here.
Virginia Tech participants
Kaylea Arnett, Sr. (1M, 3M, platform)
Gabrielle Bishop, Jr. (relays)
Ashley Butcher, So. (3M)
Fiona Donnelly, So. (400 IM, relays)
Adriana Grabski, Fr. (relays)
Margaret Gruber, So. (100 Fly, relays)
Jessica Hespeler, So. (relays)
Holly Harper, Jr. (relays)
Klaudia Nazieblo, So. (100 Back, 200 Fly)
Weronika Paluszek, Jr. (100 Breast, 200 Breast, relays)
Mackenzie Stewart, Jr. (100 Breast, 200 Breast, relays)
Kelli Stockton, Sr. (1M, 3M, platform)
Emma Villareal, Fr. (platform)