NCAA Div. I: North Carolina Leads NIKE Cup

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Nov. 17. THE ninth-ranked North Carolina women and 14th-ranked UNC men extended their leads Friday night in the 15th annual Nike Cup Swimming and Diving Championships at the Maurice J. Koury Natatorium.

On the women's side, North Carolina leads with a total of 886 points. Virginia Tech is second with 345 points. LSU is third with 267, Pittsburgh fourth with 233.5 and Duke fifth with 210. The remainder of the women's field has Connecticut in sixth with 178, Syracuse in seventh with 156, Richmond in eighth with 95.5, East Carolina in ninth with 92, James Madison in 10th with 41, Old Dominion in 11th with 39, George Washington in 12th with 37 and Toledo in 13th with 18.

In the men's competition, North Carolina leads with 759 points while Pittsburgh holds down second place with 552 points and LSU is in third place with 417 points. The remainder of the men's field has Virginia Tech in fourth with 193, Duke in fifth with 112, James Madison in sixth with 97, Syracuse in seventh with 96, East Carolina in eighth with 90, Old Dominion in ninth with 87, George Washington in 10th with 52, Toledo and UNC-Wilmington are tied for 11th with 49 and Connecticut in 13th with 45.

The North Carolina women started the evening by winning the 200 yard medley relay in 1:43.09. That time was just .01 of a second shy of tying the Nike Cup record. Members of the relay are Summer Mack, Katie Hathaway, Erika Acuff and Jessi Perruquet. The Tar Heels also won the men's 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1:30.28. Members of the winning relay were Kert Johnson, Chris Helin, Sebastien Moity and Kevin Erndl.

North Carolina swept the top three places in both the men's and women's 400 yard individual medley. On the women's side both Katie Hathaway and Erika Acuff swam under the NCAA automatic qualifying time in finishing 1-2. Hathaway won in 4:15.25 and Acuff was second in 4:15.79. UNC's Lauren Silva was third. On the men's side, Dave Slawinski won in a time of 3:53.43 followed by sophomores Judd Glasco and Stephen Mohr.

Junior Mandy Leach of LSU won the women's 100-yard butterfly with a time of 55.28 seconds. She edged UNC's Summer Mack by .02 of a second to win the title. North Carolina's Sebastien Moity won the men's 100 fly with a time of 49.57 seconds, just ahead of Steve Tozer of Virginia Tech who touched in 49.59 seconds.

Leach almost pulled off back-to-back wins but she was edged by UNC's Perruquet in the 200-yard freestyle. Perruquet's winning time was 1:48.51, while Leach was second in 1:48.62. In the men's 200-yard freestyle the winner was Max Von Bodungen of Pittsburgh with a time of 1:38.74.

In the women's 100-yard breaststroke North Carolina's Hathaway won her second event of the evening, again in an automatic NCAA qualifying time. She touched in 1:02.27. George Washington University senior Alvaro Fortuny was the men's winner with a time of 55.44 seconds.

Three Tar Heels finished in the top four of the women's 100-yard backstroke as Summer Mack took the title in 55.35 seconds. Pittsburgh's Steve Siler was the men's winner with a time of 49.45 seconds.

North Carolina's 800-yard freestyle relay team of Hathaway, Molly Sullivan, Acuff and Perruquet won in 7;24.90. On the men's side, Pittsburgh set a Nike Cup record with a time of 6:37.69. Members of that relay were Adam Webber, Steve Siler, Mike Grube and Max Von Bodungen.

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