Hokie ClubATLANTA, Ga. - The Virginia Tech women’s swimming and diving team concluded its season with a top 25 finish at the 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships behind two All-American performances.
Klaudia Nazieblo earned All-American honors in the 200 fly while Weronika Paluszek earned Honorable Mention All-American honors in the 200 breast to lead the Hokies and earn a combined 17 points. As a team, Tech finished with 23 points and tied for 25th place. The 400 medley relay team comprised of Nazieblo, Paluszek, Maggie Gruber and Jessica Hespeler had scored six points with a 14th place finish on Thursday.
“We are very proud of our women’s top 25 finish! They earned it and they have been such a great group all season. Klaudia and Weronika were outstanding today and the energy from our team has been inspiring,” head coach Ned Skinner said.
Paluszek swam a 2:08.03 in the finals of the 200 breast to take 12th place and five points. She improved upon her 2:08.28 from the morning preliminaries. Paluszek concludes an outstanding career as a Hokie in which, as an individual, she earned an All-American honor, three Honorable Mention All-American honors, an ACC goal medal and five ACC bronze medals. She also earned an ACC gold and two ACC bronze medals as part of 400 medley relay teams.
“Weronika concludes a career in which she will be remembered as one of our greatest H2Okies ever,” Skinner said.
Nazieblo finished in seventh place in the preliminaries as well as the finals to earn her status as an All-American in the 200 fly after she swam a finals time of 1:53.77. She improved upon her 2015 Honorable Mention All-American finish in the 200 fly and earned 12 team points.
Jessica Hespeler finished with a time of 16:26.82 in the 1,650 free prelims. Maggie Gruber swam a 1:57.68 in the 200 fly prelims. Ashlynn Peters and Leah Piemonte also competed in the preliminaries of the platform event.
The Hokies also had four individual medals, two silver and two bronze, at the 2016 ACC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship and held a dual meet record of 9-3.