ACC Championships: Day Two

ATLANTA, Georgia, February 21. THE 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Swimming and Men's and Women's Diving Championships hits the halfway mark, as much excitement remains in the next two days of competition at the Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga. The University of Virginia continues to hold onto its lead, pacing the field with 259 points.

Trailing close behind with 241 points is the University of North Carolina, which finished in the top three positions in three of the five events on the day. Junior Whitney Sprague successfully defended her title in the 500-yard freestyle with a winning NCAA "A" time of 4:42.80.

Virginia's sweep of the top three spots in the 200-yard individual medley gave the Cavaliers a brief commanding lead after two completed events on the day. Freshman Liz Shaw shattered the conference and ACC meet records en route to winning the event with an NCAA "A" time of 1:58.63. Teammates Claire Crippen and Megan Evo placed second and third, respectively.

After anchoring a winning 200-yard medley relay team that set a new Georgia Tech Aquatic Center pool record Wednesday night, Virginia Tech's Sara Smith followed up with an impressive individual performance in the 50-yard freestyle. The junior from McGaheysville, Va., took first place with an NCAA "A" cut 22.52, becoming only the second Hokie to ever win the event.

Diving competition began Thursday, as Miami continued its dominance in the women's one-meter for the fourth straight year. Sophomore Brittany Viola picked up her first individual ACC championship title, finishing almost 45 points ahead of the field with a total of 324.65. Georgia Tech's Hannah Krimm collected 280 points for second place, while Dani Kazilionis from Clemson tallied 269.

In the men's three-meter dive, Florida State swept two of the top three spots as Terry Horner placed first and teammate Dan Frebel finished in second. North Carolina's Ryan Funderburk rounded out the top three.

Special thanks to the ACC for contributing this report.

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