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North Carolina Wins 2001 ACC Women's Championships

Feb 18, 2001

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The University of North Carolina women's swimming team has captured its second straight ACC Championship as the Tar Heels won the 2001 ACC Swimming & Diving Championship at the Virginia Aquatic and Fitness Center. After the third and final day of competition, North Carolina had tallied 823 total points for a 183.5-point advantage over host school Virginia. The Cavaliers finished second in the three-day event with 639.50 points, while Clemson claimed third place with 523.50 points. Maryland finished in fourth place with 460 points, and Florida State took fifth place with 421 points. NC State finished in sixth place with 345 points, and Duke came in seventh with 159 points.

In a unanimous voting of the ACC's head coaches, Virginia sophomore Cara Lane was named Most Valuable Swimmer of the meet for the second year in a row. Lane won individual championships in the 500-yard freestyle, the 1650-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly for the second consecutive year. Her time in the 1650 free was a new ACC record. In her first ACC Diving Championship, Florida State freshman Chelsie Lerew earned the meet's Most Valuable Diver award after she swept the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions. Lerew won the one-meter competition with a score of 274.50 and won the three-meter competition with a score of 493.70.

In the night's first event, Lane broke the ACC record and UVa pool record as she won the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 15:58.46. Lane, who owned the previous ACC and UVa pool records, won by nearly 24 seconds in an NCAA automatic-qualifying time. Virginia's Amy Baly finished second in a time of 16:22.45, and North Carolina's Lauren Silva came in third in 16:37.19.

In the 200-yard backstroke, Virginia's Megan Iffland set a new UVa pool record as she won the event in a time of 1:58.64. North Carolina's Leigh Sanders finished second in a time of 2:01.09, and Virginia's Quinn Amesbury took third place in a time of 2:02.25.

Maryland's Suzy Catterson took first place in the 100-yard freestyle, edging out North Carolina's Jessi Perruquet. Catterson swam the event in 49.82, while Perruquet grabbed second place with a time of 50.08. Florida State's Christy Cech finished third in 50.14.

In the 200-yard breaststroke, each of the top three finishers bettered the UVa pool record. North Carolina freshman Becky Acker won the event in a time of 2:14.21, while Tar Heel teammate Katie Hathaway, who won the 100-yard breaststroke, finished second in a time of 2:14.54. Florida State's Keryn Krynauw came in third in 2:14.93.

Virginia's Cara Lane trailed teammate Mirjana Bosevska throughout the 200-yard butterfly, but Lane out-touched Bosevska by less than a tenth of a second to earn her third individual championship of the meet. Lane's time of 1:59.03 set a new UVa pool record and was an NCAA automatic qualifying time. Bosevska also earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship with her second-place time of 1:59.10. North Carolina's Kelly Weeks finished in third place in a time of 1:59.83.

In the three-meter diving final, Florida State's Lerew won the event with a final score of 493.70. North Carolina's Lindsay Waddell finished second with a score of 457.15, and NC State's Erin Bailey took third with 455.10 points.

ACC Champion North Carolina won the final event of the championship, the 400-yard freestyle relay, topping the competition by nearly a second. The Tar Heel team of Christy Watkins, Katie Hathaway, Jessi Perruquet and Erika Acuff took first place in a new UVa pool-record time of 3:20.45. Maryland finished in second place in a time of 3:21.39, and Virginia took third in 3:23.17.