While the Virginia women were busy dismantling their side of the ACC, the Cavalier men endured a more humbling week at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga. — one that nonetheless offered tantalizing glimpses of what Coach Todd DeSorbo’s men could become.
Virginia finished seventh overall with 577.5 points, over 500 points behind champion Cal’s 1154, in a meet where the Cavaliers' lack of roster depth was laid bare against the conference’s powerhouses. The men entered the postseason ranked No. 25 in the CSCAA poll, and the lack of diving points earned on the first two nights put Virginia on its back foot.
The Cavaliers had a rough start to the swimming events on night three of competition. In the 200-yard medley relay, the quartet of sophomore Spencer Nicholas, freshman Davin Lindholm, freshman Thomas Heilman and senior Jack Aikins were disqualified for an early takeoff by Lindholm, costing the Cavaliers valuable relay points on the opening night, foreshadowing a week in which Virginia’s slim margin for error would be repeatedly tested.
But the 800-yard freestyle offered the Cavaliers’ redemption. Freshman Maximus Williamson led off in a blistering 1:31.46 — a new school record in the event — and sophomore David King split 1:31.45 on the second leg to give the Cavaliers the lead. Heilman and junior Hayden Bellotti were not able to hold off Cal, Stanford and NC State. Their time of 6:10.17 set a new school record and placed them fourth overall.
Williamson provided the men’s first individual podium finish on the second night of swimming, taking silver in the 200-yard individual medley. Seeded only fifth after prelims, the highly-touted freshman attacked the final and dueled NC State's Arsenio Bustos all the way to the wall, ultimately touching in a school-record 1:40.78, just 0.39 behind the champion. Heilman added a ninth-place finish in the event after winning the consolation final.
Thursday brought Heilman’s breakout moment — the Paris Olympian took silver in 44.16 in the 100-yard butterfly, earning his first career ACC medal with a heroic closing split of 23.47 that nearly ran down NC State's Aiden Hayes. That same night, Williamson won the consolation final of the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.45.
Friday’s sessions came with highs and lows. In the morning's 200-yard butterfly prelims, Bellotti produced the swim of his life, posting a 1:41.02 that shattered his personal best and was the third-fastest time in program history, qualifying him third for the championship final. Top seed Heilman, by contrast, barely scraped into the final in seventh with a 1:41.57. The roles reversed starkly Friday evening — Heilman stormed back to claim silver in 1:39.35, while Bellotti was unable to replicate his morning result, finishing eighth.
In Friday’s other events, the Cavalier men had strong showings in the 100-yard backstroke. Aikins won the consolation final in 45.58, out-touching King by one-hundredth of a second, while sophomore Spencer Nicholas won the bonus final in 45.76. The 400-yard medley relay of Aikins, Matthew Heilman, Thomas Heilman and Williamson closed out the evening by setting a new Virginia program record of 3:01.75, finishing fourth once again.
The final night delivered King's crowning moment. The sophomore stormed to victory in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:38.14, breaking his own school record of 1:38.36 set at last year's ACC championships — King improved from bronze in 2025 to gold this time around. It was the Cavalier men's sole individual conference title of the week.
In an unfortunate outcome, Aikins appeared to touch second behind King for a memorable Virginia 1-2 finish — but was disqualified for having his toes over the lip of the gutter after the start. It was Aikins' second DQ of the meet, a deeply frustrating result for the senior who swam at an elite conference level throughout the year.
The men finished the meet on a high note, posting their best relay finish of the meet with a bronze in the 400-yard freestyle relay, clocking 2:47.51.
The Virginia men’s week in Georgia was one of individual brilliance undermined by a lack of depth throughout the roster. The Cavaliers’ top three point scorers — King, Williamson and Heilman — each made A-finals and medaled, sitting among the ACC’s elite. But beyond that trio plus Aikins and Bellotti, the Cavaliers lacked the mid-roster contributions that higher placing teams were able to consistently deploy.
The men were unable to replicate the utter dominance displayed by the women's side. The seventh-place finish and sole individual gold does not hold a candle to the women’s seventh-straight first-place finish with 11 titles, but for a program in the early stages of a rebuild, these results show promise.
With Williamson and Heilman in only their first year in Charlottesville, and King continuing to improve as a sophomore, Virginia has a clear path forward. The question heading into the NCAA Championships in mid-March is whether these Cavalier men can peak at the right time and make their individual marks on the national stage.
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