It has been four years since the Virginia swimming and diving program swept the ACC Championship meets, capturing both the men's and women's titles in 2004. As the Cavalier men head into the second day of ACC competition in Atlanta, however, the possibility of completely dominating the conference once again is very real; the Virginia women already claimed their 2008 crown last Saturday.
Scoring 800 points during the four days of competition, the Cavalier women defeated North Carolina, the defending champion and this year's runner-up, by a margin of 228 points.
"We were always confident we could win, but I do think we were a bit surprised by such a big margin," senior Stephanie Glover said. "I don't think we expected to dominate to the extent that we did."
Indeed, by Friday morning, and with still a day and a half of racing left, the team knew that, barring some travesty, it would return home conference champion. At that point, Virginia had nearly three times as many swimmers competing in the final heats as the Tar Heels.
That knowledge took much of the pressure off Virginia. As Glover recalled, the team had a chance to really swim for fun. Meanwhile, Virginia coach Mark Bernardino worked to ensure the women remained focused and did not get carried away by their excitement.
"[Bernardino] outlined our goals and emphasized that every session, the score was still 0-0," Glover said. "He made sure we wouldn't get wound up that we were going to win because it would have been so easy to lose focus and fall off at that point."
Although everyone could predict the final outcome early on, there were still individual titles to be both earned and defended. Freshman Liz Shaw dominated in the 200 fly, breaking the conference record she had set earlier in the dual-meet season with a new time of 1:56.07. The Cavaliers went on to sweep the event, with freshman Claire Crippen and junior Megan Evo placing second and third, respectively.
Although senior Jess Lewis, the 2007 champion in the 200 freestyle, failed to defend her title, she swam the last leg of Virginia's winning 400 freestyle relay. The foursome, freshman Hannah Davis, Glover, Evo and Lewis, set a new conference record with their winning time of 3:18.69.
"It was the last event of the entire meet," Lewis said. "We already knew we were going to win ACCs so it was all about swimming our best and going out with a bang for the whole team."
Being crowned ACC champions was particularly special for the senior class. With Virginia having captured the 2003 and 2004 titles, Lewis, Glover, Amber Bialas and Julie McLaughlin entered their freshman year with high expectations of one day earning the distinction themselves.
"I am beyond thrilled, almost speechless," Glover said. "Since coming to college it has been my dream to sing the 'Good Ol' Song' at the end of the ACC meet. It is kind of surreal -- especially how perfectly the whole weekend went -- and I could not have asked for a better ending to my four years here."
Indeed, from the women's perspective, the only way to improve on the win would be for the men to capture the 2008 crown as well.
"It would show how much of a team we really are," Lewis said. "Although we are technically two separate teams, we support each other in and out of the pool everyday. It would show what a quality team Virginia is as a whole"
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