North Carolina State University Athletics
Women's Swimming & Diving Heads to ACC Championships
2/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming
Feb. 19, 2003
Chapel Hill, N.C. - NC State will take a short trip west for the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships scheduled for February 20-22 at the Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill. Preliminary action is set to begin each day at 11 a.m., with finals to follow at 7 p.m. each evening. Admission is free to the event.
The Wolfpack Women enter the championships with a total of six wins under their belt, including two conference victories.
Last year, the team put together one of its best performances of the season and placed a number of competitors in the finals. Senior Anna Maria Gazda appeared in three finals last season, and placed fourth in the 200 backstroke. Karen Burbella was also a multi-event finalist a year ago, and took an 11th place finish in the 400 Individual Medley. Burbella posted her best performance of the season in the 400 IM at the Nike Cup, held at the Koury Natatorium earlier this season. She is now the school's record holder in the event.
The Wolfpack will challenge for the top spots in the diving competition. Molly Culberson, Erin Bailey and Amber O'Reilly rank one-two-three on the three-meter board, based upon regular season competition scores. Culberson and Bailey and and and two on the one-meter. Culberson defeated both of the the defending conference champions when the Wolfpack faced the Seminoles in dual-meet action earlier in the season.
One-meter diving preliminaries and semifinals will be held at the conclusion of Thursday's morning session. The finals in one-meter diving are that night. Three-meter diving preliminaries and semifinals are held immediately after Friday's morning session with the finals on Saturday night.
Eight conference schools will compete in the championships--all teams with the exception of Wake Forest. North Carolina is the defending champion having won by a 54.5 point margin over second-place Virginia at last year's meet in College Park, Md. Individual winners in 12 of 15 events return from last year's Championships led by the 2002 meet MVP Mirjana Bosevska of Virginia and 2002 diving MVP Chelsie Lerew of Florida State. Defending champion's are Bosevska in the 200 and 400 IMs and 200 fly, North Carolina's Christy Watkins in the 50 free and 100 back, Virginia's Cara Lane in the 500 and 1650 freestyles, Maryland's Bridget Mallon in the 100 fly, North Carolina's Jessi Perruquet in the 200 free, FSU's Courtney McCloy in one-meter diving and the Seminoles' Chelsie Lerew in three-meter diving.
This will be the 25th meet in conference women's swimming history. North Carolina had won 15 of the previous 24 meets while Clemson has four titles, Virginia three championships and NC State two crowns.
