No. 19 Cardinals Kick Off ACC Championships on Wednesday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After months of preparation, the University of Louisville men's and women's swimming and diving team opens the championship season on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at the ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

The No. 19 Cardinal women will compete in both swimming and diving, while the No. 10 men will compete solely in diving. Men's swimming will take place from Feb. 26-29.

Competition is slated to begin on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. with the men's 3-meter and women's 1-meter preliminaries. Swimming will begin on Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. and continue through Saturday evening.

Aside from Wednesday, preliminaries will start each morning at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m. The top 24 swimmers and the top eight divers from the morning session will advance to finals each night. Scores from the men's diving events will be added to the final scores from the Men's ACC Championships next week.

About the Cardinals
Louisville secured a third-place finish at last year's ACC Championships. A pair of Cardinals won a combined four individual titles, led by Mallory Comerford who won all of her events (100/200/500 freestyle) and was crowned the ACC Championship MVP for the second-straight year.

Grace Oglesby won the 200 butterfly, earned silver in the 100 butterfly, and took bronze in the 200 individual medley. Morgan Friesen claimed bronze in the 200 breaststroke and diver Molly Fears finished fourth on the 3-meter board and eighth on the platform.

The Cardinals' 400 freestyle relay of Lainey Visscher, Comerford, Casey Fanz, and Arina Openysheva concluded the 2019 meet with a bang by winning the event a second ahead of the field. Louisville's 200 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay, and 800 freestyle relays all earned silver.

Heading into the meet, the Cardinals boast a number of swims that rank among the top-20 nationally. Oglesby leads the way with the fourth-ranked time in the 200 butterfly (1:54.47) and the No. 8 time in the 100 butterfly (51.62). Mariia Astashkina sits in 17th in the 200 breaststroke (2:09.38) and Fanz holds the 18th-fastest time in the 50 freestyle (22.16).

NC State won last year's meet with 1,335 points to edge Virginia's 1,282. Louisville followed with a score of 1,146 ahead of Notre Dame (909.5), Duke (764), Florida State (727), North Carolina (700.5), Virginia Tech (477.5), Georgia Tech (360), Pitt (334), Miami (293.5), and Boston College (154).

Scouting the Competition
Defending champion NC State enters the meet as the top-ranked team, checking in at No. 3 in the final CSCAA/TYR poll. Last year's runner-up Virginia follows just behind the Wolfpack with the No. 6 ranking.

No. 12 Notre Dame and No. 15 North Carolina will also look to improve upon their respective fourth and seventh place finishes from last year. Florida State, who took sixth last season, rounds out the ranked teams at No. 25.

Cards In the Record Book
A number of Cardinals have etched their names into the ACC record book. Comerford owns the ACC meet record as well as the overall conference mark in the 100 freestyle with times of 46.57 and 46.20, respectively, as well as in the 200 freestyle (1:41.60/1:39.80).

Kelsi Worrell has both the championship and ACC record in the 100 butterfly with times of 50.06 and 49.43. Worrell also owns the overall conference mark in the 200 butterfly at 1:50.61 while the ACC meet record belongs to Oglesby at 1:52.81. Oglesby is the top seed in the event this year.

Tanja Kylliainen's 400 individual medley time of 4:03.51 still stands as the overall conference standard while her performance of 4:04.21 remains the meet record. Louisville's 800 freestyle relay team of Sophie Cattermole, Comerford, Openysheva, and Rachael Bradford-Feldman set the ACC record two seasons ago at 6:53.75.

How to Watch
ACC Network Extra will broadcast finals Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening starting at 6 p.m. Fans can also watch live on WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.

No. 19 Cardinals Kick Off ACC Championships on Wednesday

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Players Mentioned

Mariia Astashkina

Rachael Bradford-Feldman

Sophie Cattermole

Mallory Comerford

Casey Fanz

Molly Fears

Morgan Friesen

Grace Oglesby

Arina Openysheva

Lainey Visscher

Kelsi Worrell

University of Louisville Athletics