Virginia sophomore Alex Walsh was named ACC Women’s Swimmer of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday (Nov. 23).
Walsh set an ACC and UVA record in the 400 individual medley, won two individual events and was part of two relay wins at the Tennessee Invitational. The native of Nashville, Tennessee, broke an ACC, UVA and meet record in the 400 IM with a time of 4:01.40. She set another meet record with a time of 1:51.83 to win the 200 butterfly, which was just .02 seconds off UVA’s program record. Her times in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM are the best in the country so far this season.
She anchored the meet-record setting 400 medley relay team on the first night of competition and also led off UVA’s first-place 200 medley relay team to a 1:34.16 NCAA A time. Walsh anchored UVA’s second-place 200 free relay team with a NCAA A time of 1:26.61.
Virginia will compete in the US Open in Greensboro, N.C., December 2-4.
Duke freshman Margo O’Meara was named the ACC Women’s Diver of the Week, the organization announced Tuesday afternoon.
O’Meara, a native of St. Louis, Mo., earned her third conference honor this year and third-consecutive award from the league.
O’Meara put together an impressive performance at the Wolfpack Invitational and left no doubt on the springboards, placing first in both the preliminaries and finals. O’Meara scored 306.00 in the one-meter final and 343.90 in the three-meter final. In platform diving, O’Meara placed second in the finals with a score of 252.35.
Overall, O’Meara led the Blue Devils to five of the top six spots on the one-meter, four of the top six spots in the three-meter and the top three spots in platform diving.
No. 22 Duke placed third in the meet with 1,318 points while competing against ACC rival No. 3 NC State, No. 6 Stanford, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 20 Arizona State, Penn State, Army, George Washington, UNC Wilmington and James Madison.
On the men’s side, Georgia Tech’s Christian Ferraro was named the ACC Men’s Swimmer of the Week, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced Tuesday.
At the GT Invite from Nov. 18-20, Ferraro swam in the 200 fly, 100 fly, 50 free, 200 free relay and 400 medley relay. His prelims time in the 200 fly (1:40.33) was good for best in the nation and is the only NCAA “A” cut in the event so far this season. With his time in the 200 fly, Ferraro eclipsed his own program record by 0.31 seconds.
The ACC Swimmer of the Week took home the gold in the 200 fly. His time in the finals of the 200 fly (1:40.97) was 2.97 seconds faster than the second place swimmer. He also won the 100 fly (45.61). Ferraro was trailing two swimmers going in to the last 25 yards of the event before turning on the boosters to outlast his competition. Ferraro’s 100 fly time is good for an NCAA B cut.
The last individual event for Ferraro at the GT Invite was the 50 free. Ferraro finished eighth in the event but turned in an NCAA B cut during the prelims with a time of 19.64.
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