University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
ACC Men's Swimming Championships
Tar Heels Take Lead At ACC Championships
February 23, 2012 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 23, 2012
CHRISTIANSBURG, VA. - Led by medalist performances by J.T. Stilley, Kyle Ficker, Steve Cebertowicz, David MacDonald and the school record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay team, the North Carolina men's swimming and diving team has taken the lead after Thursday's finals session of the 2012 ACC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center.
Sophomore Kyle Ficker took home second place honors in the 50-yard freestyle while sophomore J.T. Stilley, senior Steve Cebertowicz and senior David MacDonald placed third in the 500-yard freestyle, 50-yard freestyle and three-meter diving, respectively.
After the second full day of competition, North Carolina, going after its first crown since 1998, has taken the lead with 245.5 points while four-time defending ACC champion Virginia is in second place with 225 points. Florida State, seeking its first league crown since 2007, is in third place with 214 points while host Virginia Tech is in fourth place with 164 points. The remainder of the field has NC State with 127 points, Clemson with 123.5 points, Georgia Tech with 108, Duke with 85, Maryland with 75, Boston College with 42 and Miami with 15.
The Tar Heels opened the night by earning their third straight podium finish of the meet in a relay event as the 200-yard freestyle relay placed third in a school record time of 1:18.35. Florida State won the event with a meet record time of 1:17.73 while Clemson was second with a time of 1:18.13. On Thursday, UNC finished third in the 200-yard medley relay and second in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
"We started the night off with a school record swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. "It was a great way to get started on the night. We swam in an outside lane and our guys really did a great job. We thought we could break our school record and we did."
All four members of the UNC relay split under 19.70 seconds to take down the previous school record time of 1:18.88 set in 2011 by Steve Cebertowicz, Tommy Wyher, Evan Reed and Brock Park.
Cebertowicz led off the Tar Heels' relay on Thursday night by going 19.61 followed by sophomore Kyle Ficker who went 19.53, senior Brock Park who clocked a 19.53 split and senior Evan Reed who went 19.68.
Senior David MacDonald earned All-ACC honors for the first time in his career as he placed third in the three-meter diving competition, scoring 398.95 points. Logan Shinholser of Virginia Tech was the champion with 435.40 while Ford McLiney of Florida State finished second with 401.05 points. UNC had two other divers score in the three-meter event as junior Jake Kinzbach finished ninth with 350.55 points and junior Ryland Jones was 15th with 331.90 points.
UNC swimmers placed third, fourth and sixth in the championship final of the 500-yard freestyle. Sophomore J.T. Stilley placed third in 4:22.69, senior Wil Singley was fourth in 4:23.41 and junior Brett Nagle was sixth in 4:25.53. Senior Sean Lane made the consolation final and placed 12th in a time of 4:28.44.
"We followed up the relay with a strong 500-yard freestyle performance with four swimmers in the Top 12 of the event," said DeSelm. "We were able to get three people into the championship final and all three finished in the Top 6 so we were consistent there."
Junior Tom Luchsinger led the Tar Heel efforts in the 200-yard individual medley as he finished fourth in a time of 1:47.32. Freshman Dominick Glavich finished eighth with a time of 1:48.76 after going a career best time of 1:47.36 in the preliminaries. Sophomore Alex Gianino qualified in 14th place in the prelims but moved up to 10th place in the consolation final with a career best swim of 1:48.47 (previous was 1:49.46).
The Tar Heels finished off the day with some brilliant performances in the 50-yard freestyle. Sophomore Kyle Ficker finished second in a time of 19.72 while Steve Cebertowicz took third place in 19.79 and senior Evan Reed tied for 11th in 20.19 seconds.
In the preliminaries, Cebertowicz broke his own University record in going 19.59 seconds. His previous record was 19.75 set in 2011. Ficker bested Cebertowicz at night by seven one-hundredths of a second, making him the second best performer in school history. His previous career best was 19.98. Reed also went his career best time in the prelims with a time of 20.13 seconds.
"The 50 free was huge for us with second and third place finishes," said DeSelm. "I don't remember a time when UNC would have placed two people on the awards podium in this event. Kyle Ficker and Steve Cebertowicz really helped our cause tonight."
"The winner of this championship is going to endure a long haul over four days," said DeSelm. "I thought we finished up session three very strong. I am very proud of our team today and we are all looking forward to tomorrow morning. The team is feeling very positive about the next two days."
Players Mentioned
