On the heels of claiming its sixth consecutive conference title, the No. 9 Virginia men’s swimming and diving team enters the final chapter of its season as it begins competition at the NCAA Championship meet Thursday.
The Cavaliers (8-1, 3-0 ACC) most recently earned the program’s 16th ACC Championship where four Virginia men and one relay earned single event titles. The Cavaliers finished with 759.5 points, far ahead of second- and third-place finishers Virginia Tech and North Carolina.
“This was a really pleasant year for our men,” coach Mark Bernardino said. “I think they’ve surprised a lot of people, and the key to their success this year revolved around team chemistry and friendship … There were no individual accolades to worry about. The only focus they had was the success of the team.”
Virginia qualified 12 swimmers and one diver — sophomore JB Kolod — to the NCAA Championship meet in Indianapolis. Virginia has placed in the top 15 at this meet in each of the last five seasons and finished as high as eighth two years ago.
“Our expectations is always to be a top-15 program,” Bernardino said. “We’ll have to battle to get there this year, just because of the makeup of this team, but I won’t put anything past them considering the way they’ve performed all year long.”
Scoring points is very difficult to do at the national stage, so simply making it out of morning prelims is considered a notable accomplishment. Earning one of the top 16 spots in prelims is not only the requirement for returning for evening finals, but is also the metric for determining All-American status.
“[Bernardino] has really been stressing that prelims are finals,” junior Jack Murfee said. “We can’t lay back at all in the mornings — we have to get them right off the bat … NCAAs is pretty much the top dogs in every single conference combined in one meet.”
The men’s team has been particularly strong this season in distance swimming and will look to excel in those events. At ACCs, juniors Brad Phillips and Jan Daniec placed first and second in the 500 free, while junior Parker Camp and freshman Nick Alexiou finished fifth and sixth in the event, respectively. In addition, Daniec claimed the ACC title in 1650 free.
“It’s very good for the team that we have really good 1650 and 500 swimmers,” Daniec said. “We did really well in those events at ACCs, so we’re hoping to do well as well in those events at NCAAs.”
Senior Tom Barrett will look to excel in the shorter distance freestyle events. He claimed the 200 free title at ACCs — the sixth straight year a Cavalier claimed the event — and finished second in the 100 free. Barrett also finished fifth in the 50 free.
The Cavaliers will also look to be a force in the backstroke events. Freshman Luke Papendick finished second place at the ACC Championship in the 200 back, and Murfee claimed bronze in the 100 back, while Papendick touched fifth in that event.
“This is my first time competing at this meet individually,” Murfee said. “I was really pleased with how I did at ACCs, but I still think I can go faster. Our whole team has been really focused, and we think we can do well at NCAAs.”
The Cavaliers will also participate in several relay events, another area where the team is hopeful about scoring points. The 200 free relay and 400 medley relay will take place Thursday, and both could serve as opportunities for the Cavaliers to secure early points.
“What’s more important at NCAAs than any individual event are relays, because they can score twice as many points,” Daniec said.
Action at the NCAA Championship begins Thursday and continues into Saturday with prelims starting at 11 a.m. and finals beginning at 7 p.m.
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