The Virginia men's and women's swimming and diving teams managed to fit a three-day meet into a day-and-a-half this weekend at the Aquatic & Fitness Center, and they did so triumphantly.
Two sessions of competition were held Friday, followed by a final session Saturday morning. The Cavalier women left the pool Friday with 667 points, topping Virginia Tech's 447.5- and Princeton's 419.5-point totals.
"This was [the women's] first home meet," senior Liz Shaw said. "Having our whole team compete together as opposed to the travel team of 18 that went to Florida really added excitement."
The men also opened the two-day meet successfully with 646.5 points, soaring over the Hokies and Tigers, who posted 526 and 352.5 points, respectively.
Both the men's and women's 200 free relay squads snagged first place in their respective meet-openers, and the teams continued to collect first-place titles in the individual events.
Senior Matt McLean took first place in the 200 and 500 freestyle events, sophomore Lauren Perdue placed first in the 50 and 200 freestyle and freshman Taylor Grey commanded the pool in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke.
Senior Scot Robison's 20.44 and junior Peter Geissinger's 20.78 performances in the 50 freestyle led to a 1-2 finish for the men, and the women touched 1-2-3 in the 100 backstroke as sophomore Meredith Cavalier came in first with a time of 55.89, followed by freshman Charlotte Clarke one-hundredth of a second later in second and junior Jenny Lewis in third.
The men and women closed the meet in winning form in the 800 free relay. Senior John Snawerdt, freshmen Jonathan Buerger and Jon Daniec and senior Taylor Smith finished in 6:47.16. Meanwhile, Perdue, Shaw, senior Kristen Moores and freshman Caroline Kenney beat the competition with a NCAA 'B' time of 7:22.33.
Twelve NCAA 'B' times were recorded Friday - an impressive feat to accomplish in one day.
"We clearly hit a little bit of a wall on Saturday morning with the exception of a couple of events," coach Mark Bernardino said. "I'm not sure whether that was just the end of a long week of training and competing or if we did not properly get warmed up on Saturday ... Certain events went well and [others] weren't as good."
Although the teams did not win every race, the results pointed toward overall success for Virginia. The Cavalier women finished with 968 points, Virginia Tech with 619.5 and Princeton with 567.5. The men also finished strong with 939.5 points, dominating the Hokies' 718 points and the Tigers' 478.5.
"Keeping excitement up on the pool deck and sharing in each other's successes helps everyone to maintain positive attitudes throughout," Shaw said. "Training has been intense, so it's all about racing and using each other and our competitors to fire us up. "
That fire fueled the Cavaliers throughout the morning as Perdue, Shaw, sophomore Matt Murray, Robison, McLean, Grey, senior Anne Summer Myers and the relay teams all earned first-place titles.
Those finishes not only helped the Cavaliers on the scoreboard but also showed Bernardino the strength of his freshmen.
"We're learning a lot about how their bodies react," Bernardino said. "We're learning a lot about who likes the pressure and the intense competition ... With such a young team, it's really important that we start to gather some of that information."
Virginia will return to the water this weekend when it hosts Indiana and Penn State for another two-day meet in Charlottesville.
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