Feb. 23, 2008
ATLANTA – The first NCAA “A” cut of the season and three more broken records highlighted the final night of the ACC Women’s Swimming Championships Saturday night at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The Yellow Jackets finished seventh with 261 points, just six points behind sixth-place Duke. Virginia won the meet with 800 points, 228 over second-place North Carolina.
Senior Elizabeth Stowe posted Tech’s first “A” cut of the season with a school-record 16:19.33 in the 1650-yard free to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Sophomore Agatha Kwasnik broke her own school record with a NCAA “B” cut in the 100-free while senior Stephanie England finished second in the first-ever ACC platform diving championship. The Jackets also set a new school record in the 400-yard free relay to close out a successful weekend.
“This was just an awesome job by the entire team,” head coach Stu Wilson said. “There are so many people who stepped up all weekend. It was a great meet overall and a huge stepping stone towards getting this program to the elite level that we are striving for.”
In the 1650-free, Tech senior Elizabeth Stowe finished in a NCAA “A”-cut time of 16:19.33 to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Her final time was a new school record by more than nine seconds while her first 1000 (9:55.75) also set a new school record.
In the 200-back, freshman Katie Bond lost a swim-off in the prelims so she was in the bonus consolation, but was able to set a new career-high time of 2:02.72 It was a career-high by more than a second and a half for Bond.
Sophomore Agatha Kwasnik broke her own school record in the 100-free that she had established earlier in the season during prelims and was seeded first heading into tonight’s final. Kwasnik used a strong finish in the final to place third in a NCAA “B”-cut time of 50.02.
Sophomore Taylor Flynn came back to win the consolation final of the 200-yard fly in a NCAA “B”-cut time of 2:01.78 shattering her career-best by almost two seconds. In the bonus consolation final, sophomore Jing Li was victorious in a time of 2:03.91.
Senior Stephanie England continued her solid weekend by finishing second in the ACC’s first-ever platform diving event. England scored 274.95 points. Miami’s Brittany Viola finished first with 337.50 points completing the sweep of all three events.
Georgia Tech will now focus its attention on the ACC Men’s Swimming Championship to be held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center Feb. 27-March 1. Admission will be free for all fans. For those who can’t make it, live streaming video will be available through ACC Select.
