The Virginia men’s swimming and diving team may not be the most recognized squad at the University, but it is inarguably one of the most dominant compared to the rest of the ACC.
The Cavaliers’ conference opponents did not present challenges last week at the ACC Championships in College Park, Md. as the men’s team scored 832 points, easily topping runner-up Florida State’s 640.
It was the 12th ACC title in school history for Virginia and the 10th in the last 11 years.
The swimmers “wouldn’t be satisfied if they weren’t performing at this championship level,” Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. “It’s not per chance that we’re having success — I think it’s a byproduct of the team chemistry and the bond that the teams have for one another, and I think it’s a byproduct of a lot of dedicated, focused hard work.”
While the team may have hoped for — even counted on — the victory, the margin of it exceeded Bernadino’s expectations.
“That was a very large margin of victory by any standards,” Bernardino said. “We were prepared for it to be really close and we were prepared for it to come down to the final day.”
Though Virginia led throughout the event, it did not break away from the field until Friday, the third day of the four-day meet. After entering Friday with a 56.5-point lead ahead of the Seminoles, the Cavaliers widened the margin to 139 by day’s end. Friday’s impressive showings included a conference record in the 400 medley relay, five of the top eight finishers in the 200 freestyle, four of the top eight in the 400 individual medley and three of the top five in the 100 butterfly.
“For most of these last five or six years, it’s been the middle day that’s broken the meet open,” Bernardino said. “That’s been really surprising but really exciting to have such success on the middle day, especially since the races are shorter — it’s more sprint-focused.”
The team may have performed its best on day three, but sophomore Matt McLean shone everyday; he won every event in which he participated. McLean’s individual accomplishments included first-place finishes and conference record times in the 200, 500 and 1650 freestyle events. He also swam the anchor leg for the first-place finishing 400 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay events — the 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle and teams also finished in conference-record times.
“It wasn’t just a good meet [for McLean] — it was a mammoth,” Bernardino said. “His performances were really landmark in terms of ACC swimming, and they’re definitely [going to] thrust him hopefully into the national limelight here these next couple of weeks.”
Perhaps most impressively, the grueling 1650 freestyle on the final day of the meet was not McLean’s last event. After winning the 1650 in a conference record time of 14:35.12, McLean returned later in the day for the final race, the 400 freestyle relay. Though exhausted, McLean said, and though Virginia already clinched the ACC crown, McLean held off Florida State junior Andy Hodgson in the final leg as Virginia won the race by less than one second.
“I was pretty tired [for the relay] — the [1650] takes it out of you pretty bad,” McLean said. “It can take you about a week to recover from a mile as far as how it depletes you.”
McLean may have put forth an incredible effort, but Bernardino said the sophomore’s performance also was well-deserved.
“He has an unreal sense of pace that most people could never dream of having,” Bernardino said. “He’ll swim a distance in practice, look up, and tell me his time within tenths of a second of what he did.”
McLean and his teammates are now preparing for the NCAA Championships scheduled for March 26 to 28 in College Station, Texas. Bernardino said McLean will likely enter the NCAAs as a top seed in two events — and the team as a whole set a goal at the start of the season to finish in the top 10 at the NCAAs. With Virginia’s other preseason goal of winning the ACC Championships completed, it has every intention of accomplishing this second challenge.
“If they continue to perform at the level they performed at the ACC Championship meet, then we’re [going to] make a run at [the top 10],” Bernardino said.
McLean said he has his own goals of what he would like to accomplish, though he was shy about revealing them publicly.
“I know up here what I’d like to accomplish,” McLean said, pointing to his head, “but I’m real big on processes. I always know I’ve put in the work, so I know if I do everything right, then everything will play out well.”
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