ACC Weekly Preview: SMU Classic on Tap; Duke and Notre Dame Host Tri-Meets

mallory-comerford-
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

This week in ACC swimming and diving, eight teams will be in action, mostly in dual or tri-meet settings, but two will be in Dallas for one of the prime meets of the early-season slate: the women’s-only SMU Classic.

Louisville and Miami will both be in attendance, along with USC, UCLA, Michigan and host SMU. Oh, but there’s a catch: each school is only allowed to bring eight swimmers and one diver.

For some perspective: half of this year’s attending teams had at least that many individual swimmers invited to the NCAA championships: Louisville had eight, Michigan 10 and USC 14.

Last year at the SMU Classic, Louisville’s Mallory Comerford got her season off to a quick start with times of 47.89 in the 100 free, 1:43.13 in the 200 free and 4:37.64 in the 500 free. This year, she will have some good competition in the form of USC’s Louise Hansson and Michigan’s Siobhan Haughey.

As the season progresses, check out whether Comerford gravitates towards the 50 or the 500 free as her third event. In the past, she’s typically picked the 500 — she was fourth in the event at the NCAA championships — as she excels more at longer events in short course yards than in long course.

Miami, meanwhile, will compete for the second time this year after finishing third in the All-Florida Invite behind the Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles.

Florida State & Virginia Tech at Duke, 5 p.m. Friday & 10 a.m. Saturday

The Seminoles have competed two of the past three weeks, at the aforementioned All-Florida Invite and in a home dual meet last weekend against Minnesota. Duke and Virginia Tech, on the other hand, are just starting their seasons in this week’s showdown in Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion.

Florida State has already made clear its key strengths: in the women’s breaststroke events, with NCAA finalist Natalie Pierce, and in the men’s sprints, led by Chad Mylin and Kanoa Kaleoaloha.

The Virginia Tech women, who edged out Duke for fifth place at last year’s ACC championships by just 13.5 points, are in a bit of a transition period after losing Jessica Hespeler and Fiona Donnelly to graduation. But versatile Klaudia Nazieblo returns for her senior season, and Reka Gyorgy is back for her sophomore season after a surprising ACC victory in the 400 IM last year.

The VT men suffered perhaps even bigger losses, with NCAA finalists Robert Owen and Brandon Fiala both gone. Watch for Norbert Szabo and sprinter Ian Ho to carry the load this year.

The Blue Devils women return three-year NCAA qualifier Leah Goldman and sprinter Alyssa Marsh, who was a finalist at U.S. Nationals in the 50 fly. Duke’s men, meanwhile, lose their only NCAA scorer from last year, breaststroker Peter Kropp.

The Saturday portion of the meet should wrap up around noon — just as the Blue Devil football team kicks off against Florida State. Coincidence?

Virginia at Penn State, 11 a.m. Saturday

The Todd DeSorbo era of Virginia swimming will begin in earnest this weekend as the Cavaliers travel north to Pennsylvania to face the Nittany Lions. Virginia’s women saw a nine-year run of ACC titles come to an end last year — thanks to NC State, a team which DeSorbo coached for at the time — before finishing 12th at the NCAA championships.

But this year’s Virginia team will not have Leah Smith. The Olympic gold medalist graduated and moved to the professional ranks, while versatile classmate Kaitlyn Jones is also gone. So the two best hopes for the UVA women in the early going this year should be Jen Marrkand, who was third in the 200 fly at NCAAs last year, and Megan Moroney, who had an impressive freshman campaign before missing the entire 2016-17 season.

For the UVA men, Zach Fong returns after qualifying for NCAAs in the butterfly events last year, and Brendan Casey returns after swimming the 10k open water race for Team USA at the FINA World Championships.

Texas A&M & Michigan State at Notre Dame, 5 p.m Friday & 11 a.m. Saturday

One week after a pair of upset wins over Louisville, the Fighting Irish should be tested again against the Aggies. Abbie Dolan, the Notre Dame sophomore who scored two wins over Comerford last week, is the standout swimmer on the women’s team so far this season, while Robby WhitacreZach Yeadon and Justin Plaschka all picked up multiple event wins against Louisville.

Northeast Catholic Invite

Boston College, fresh off a loss to Bryant, will host the Northeast Catholic Invite Friday (swimming) and Saturday (diving).

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