2008 Woodie Awards
Men's swimming ends season strong
Tigers place sixth in ACC Championships.
By: Sarah Porri
Issue date: 6/13/08 Section: Sports
The Clemson men's swimming and diving team tried their best to succeed at this year's ACC Championships without a head coach. The men traveled down to Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center to take part in this year's meet.
Going into the meet, the Clemson men looked strong in the ACC, only having lost to two teams in their regular season, North Carolina and Virginia.
However, without a head coach, it would be up to the 10 seniors and three coaches to lead the team throughout this four-day meet and keep their spirits up.
"Being able to represent Clemson on a higher level has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life," said senior Mark Vahle.
On Wednesday evening, the Tigers had two relays on the schedule, the 800-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay.
The team of Jay Crout, Attila Ruszka, Adam Farnham and Vahle placed sixth overall with a time of 1:28.68 seconds. About half an hour later, Bryce Harrington, David Gordon, Matt Angelini and Dan Mengering competed in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
This time, the Tigers would finish fifth with a time of 6:36.37, a new school record by just under a second. The Clemson men would leave that night in fifth place.
The Tigers looked to move up in the standings after preliminaries on Thursday morning. Finals brought back many Tigers in the 50-yard freestyle. Senior Vahle placed fourth in this event with a time of 19.96 seconds.
Teammates Stephen Russell, Matt Balderston and Farnham all swam in consolation finals and placed eighth, ninth and 12th. Russell and Balderston also boasted career best swims in this event.
Senior Ruszka and sophomore Angelini swam in the consolation finals heat of the 200-yard individual medley.
They picked up more points for the Tigers with their 14th and 16th place finish.
Freshman Gordon won the bonus heat of the 500-yard freestyle with a NCAA-B qualifying time of 4:27.12, taking three seconds off his time from the preliminary session.
Going into the meet, the Clemson men looked strong in the ACC, only having lost to two teams in their regular season, North Carolina and Virginia.
However, without a head coach, it would be up to the 10 seniors and three coaches to lead the team throughout this four-day meet and keep their spirits up.
"Being able to represent Clemson on a higher level has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life," said senior Mark Vahle.
On Wednesday evening, the Tigers had two relays on the schedule, the 800-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay.
The team of Jay Crout, Attila Ruszka, Adam Farnham and Vahle placed sixth overall with a time of 1:28.68 seconds. About half an hour later, Bryce Harrington, David Gordon, Matt Angelini and Dan Mengering competed in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
This time, the Tigers would finish fifth with a time of 6:36.37, a new school record by just under a second. The Clemson men would leave that night in fifth place.
The Tigers looked to move up in the standings after preliminaries on Thursday morning. Finals brought back many Tigers in the 50-yard freestyle. Senior Vahle placed fourth in this event with a time of 19.96 seconds.
Teammates Stephen Russell, Matt Balderston and Farnham all swam in consolation finals and placed eighth, ninth and 12th. Russell and Balderston also boasted career best swims in this event.
Senior Ruszka and sophomore Angelini swam in the consolation finals heat of the 200-yard individual medley.
They picked up more points for the Tigers with their 14th and 16th place finish.
Freshman Gordon won the bonus heat of the 500-yard freestyle with a NCAA-B qualifying time of 4:27.12, taking three seconds off his time from the preliminary session.
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