Men’s Swimming and Diving Explodes in Session Two of the ACC Championships

Feb. 23, 2006

College Park, MD- Sophomore Mark Vahle blew away the rest of his heat during the preliminary heats of the 50 freestyle Thursday morning in College Park, MD. Vahle (19.66) smashed the previous school record of 19.84 held by Alex Ioanovici and recorded an NCAA Automatic Qualifying time. Vahle was one of four swimmers to break the 20 second barrier this morning. The field was led by defending ACC Champion Cullen Jones from N.C. State. Jones broke the ACC meet record, sprinting his way to a time of 19.23.

Brian Regone also qualified for the consolation finals in the 50 freestyle. Regone finished 12th during the morning session with his time of 20.56, good for 10th all-time in Clemson history.. He was the anchor leg on last night’s bronze medal winning 200 medley relay, splitting 19.70 to out touch Virginia for third. Stephen Russell (20.83) and Matt Balderston (20.89) swam their way into the bonus consolation heat for tonight. Bryce Herrington (21.09) and Taylor Thompson (21.26) rounded out the group of sprinters for Clemson.

In the 200 IM, sophomore Attila Ruszka swam the fifth fastest time in Clemson history (1:49.99) to qualify seventh. Teammates Andy Bergren (1:51.11) and Jordan Raynovich (1:51.27) are in 11th and 12th, respectively. Senior Charlie Dillon (1:53.15) will be in the bonus consolation heat. Freshman Thomas Niemeier swam his season best time of 1:55.42, and Ben Kanoy (1:59.03) also competed in the event.

Leading off the morning session was the 500 freestyle. Senior captain Jonathan Mengering was the top Tiger qualifier in 10th with his time of 4:27.08. This was an NCAA Provisional Qualifying time. However, he was the only one to qualify in the top 16. Sean Geary (4:33.08), Dan Mengering (4:34.03), and Greg Middleton (4:34.16) are ranked 20th, 21st, and 22nd after the morning swim.

Clemson will be competing in the final heats of the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle, and 200 freestyle relay tonight. They are currently in fourth place overall, but will look to move up tonight starting at 7 pm. There will be no live webcast of the meet tonight, but the feed will be back up tomorrow as scheduled.