ACC Weekly Preview: Busy Louisville Cardinals Head to Knoxville

louisville-team-200-back-day-3-prelims-2015-d1-mncaa

Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien

It’s been a busy October for the Louisville Cardinals, and for nine of their women, this weekend will be a fourth straight competing. The Cardinals will be making the trek down to Knoxville Wednesday evening for a Thursday matinee against the Volunteers.

Meet of the Week: Louisville at Tennessee, Thurs. 2 p.m.

Louisville has already competed in a two-day “tripleheader” at Michigan, sent nine women to the SMU classic in Dallas and hosted Xavier. Now, Matt Kredich’s squads figure to be big tests for the both the Louisville women and men in both talent and depth. Good thing, then, that Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero values the opportunity to race tough competition a key element in long-term improvement.

“It is good to get a bunch of racing in, give us an assessment of where we are early on, give us some real things to work on,” Albiero said. “For me, there’s nothing we can do in practice that really mimics racing. We can try to get up on the blocks, but there’s something to be said about people in the stands and the scoreboard in full function and a little bit different excitement in the air.”

The Louisville men finished four spots and 23.5 points behind Tennessee at last season’s NCAA championships, and backstroker Grigory Tarasevich, breaststroker Carlos Claverie and freestylers Trevor Carroll and Matias Lindenbauer figure to lead a strong group of upperclassmen into this season.

The Louisville women lose the top swimmer in program history, Olympic gold medalist Kelsi Worrell, but the team is still off to a hot start, led by sophomore Mallory Comerford. Comerford opened eyes at the NCAA championships a year ago when she finished second in the 200 free—ahead of the likes of Lia Neal and Leah Smith. Comerford’s times from the SMU classic rank her second in the 50 free so far this year (22.32), first in the 100 free (47.89), second in the 200 free (1:43.13) and third in the 500 free (4:37.64).

“She’s done a really good job of being consistent since she got here,” Albiero said of Comerford. “Being around people like Andrea Cottrell and Kelsi Worrell and Tanja [Kyllianien], people that really had the experience, [Comerford] was a sponge and really learned from those guys and was not afraid to stay after and ask questions and come early, whatever it took. I think that’s what you see. She embodies the humble and hungry approach. Kelsi Worrell is the epitome of that, and I think Mallory is following right in those footsteps.”

Worrell’s graduation will hurt the Cardinal program in the points tally, but with Comerford and Cottrell providing veteran presence and freshmen Casey Fanz and Grace Oglesby already making an impact, this team remains a force nationally.

Northwestern, Duke & NC State

Northwestern’s men will head down to the Triangle Area this weekend. The Wildcats will take on NC State Friday at 5 p.m. and then head up I-40 to Durham to face the Duke men Saturday at 11 a.m. At the same time, the Duke women will be welcoming the NC State women in what is the Blue Devils’ home debut.

NC State made its debut against Wisconsin in a two-day dual last weekend and absolutely dominated. The men, returning their entire core outside of Simonas Bilis, won 224-121. It should be even less of a contest against Northwestern, but we figure to really learn what this team is made of next weekend, when Ryan Held, Soren Dahl and company head to Austin to take on Texas.

NC State’s women beat the Badgers 200-149 but figure to get a test out of Duke, who swept Virginia Tech, West Virginia and William & Mary in a triple dual last week. Freshman Alyssa Marsh looks like an instant contributor after picking up three second-place finishes in Christiansburg and already figuring heavily into relay action.

Duke’s men’s program does not have the breakout potential of the women’s team, but there are several quality pieces that will make an impact in the ACC this season. Senior breaststrokers Peter Kropp, Dylan Payne and Michael Seaberg all swam well in Christiansburg, as did second-year sprinter Yusuke Legard.

Miami, Rutgers & Purdue at Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish swept Georgia Tech last weekend in Atlanta, with the women dominating and the men taking the meet in come-from-behind action. Now, Notre Dame is back home to host ACC rival Miami (women plus men’s diving) as well as a pair of Big-10 foes. Read more about this showdown as our Big-Ten Meet of the Week.

Buffalo at Pittsburgh

The Panthers could not keep up when they traveled to Virginia last weekend but figure to have a smoother path to victory when hosting Buffalo at 4 p.m. Friday.

Other meets:

Boston College at UIC (Friday), at Wheaton (Saturday)
Clemson (women’s diving) vs. West Florida

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use