Tar Heels Sweep Midshipmen at Home

University of North Carolina Swimming Women's ACC Championships Day 2 Koury Natatorium Chapel Hill, NC Thursday, Feburary 18, 2010

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill swimming and diving teams competed against the visiting Naval Academy teams on Saturday. Both Tar Heel squads came out victorious over the Midshipmen in a competitive Division 1 matchup.

Scores

UNC men – 160, Navy men – 140

UNC women – 163, Navy women – 131

RESULTS

 

UNC Recap

CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina swimming and diving teams opened 2020 with a pair of wins over visiting Navy Saturday morning at Koury Natatorium. The No. 16 Tar Heel women were dominant in a 163-131 victory, while the No. 22 UNC men held off the Midshipmen by a 160-140 margin.

“I think the women’s team was really dominant today,” head coach Mark Gangloff said after the meet. “To watch them go out there and do their job…was a lot of fun to see and kind of sets us up really nicely for the next couple of weeks. The men’s team got down in a hole and fought their way back. When your team gets into those positions, you want them to step up, and they did that.”

Carolina Swimming & Diving

@uncswimdive

Hear from @MarkGangloff after today’s sweep of Navy:

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Emma Cole, Grace Countie, Caroline Hauder and Allie Reiter led the Carolina women, with the quartet winning both relays and seven individual, while Sophie Lindner added wins in the 100 fly and the 200 free. Emily Grund was also a double winner, sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard diving events.

On the men’s side, Valdas Abaliksta and Jack Messenger each won a pair of individual events while also featuring on the victorious 200 medley relay.

Cole hit an NCAA B standard in her first 200 butterfly race of the year, touching the wall in 1:58.78. She later combined with teammate Amy Dragelin to go 1-2 in the 100 freestyle.

Countie swam the lead leg on both relays and won a 100 back-50 free double. She, Dragelin and Heidi Lowe swept the top three spots in the 100 back, with Countie and Lowe going 1-2 in the 50 free.

Hauder touched the wall in 1:58.66 to win the 200 back in her first time swimming that event this year. She also led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100 breast, touching ahead of Lilly Higgs and Reiter. Higgs and Reiter also went 1-2 in the 200 breast.

Grund was just off her top marks of the season, posting winning scores of 288.98 in the 1-meter and 338.85 in the 3-meter. Fabian Stepkinski took first in the 3-meter men’s event with a score of 374.78 and second in the 1-meter with a score of 357.08, both season bests.

“I’m really excited with the whole team and the effort in the first meet of the year to get the second half of the season going,” head diving coach Yaidel Gamboa said. “We’ve been working really hard to put into practice what we’re doing and we showed that today.”

Carolina Swimming & Diving

@uncswimdive

And here’s Coach Gamboa after another great day for Carolina diving, with @missemilygrund again leading the way:

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The two most exciting moments of the day came late in the men’s dual. Dimitrios Dimitriou swam a monster final 50 to out-touch Navy’s Luke Johnson by 0.15 seconds to win the 500 free.
Tyler Hill and Greg Brocato then had big final pushes of their own to nose Navy’s James Wilson and take 1-2 in the 100 fly for a crucial 13 team points.

Carolina is back in action on Friday, Jan. 17, when the Tar Heels host rival NC State at 6 p.m.

 

Navy Recap

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. –– The depth of the nationally-ranked North Carolina swimming and diving teams led to the Tar Heels defeating Navy, Saturday morning in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The men’s meet saw the 22nd-ranked Tar Heels (2-2) defeat the Mids (10-3), 160-140, and in the women’s contest the No. 16 Tar Heels (3-1) topped the Mids (10-2), 163-131.

“It was a very exciting meet today,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  “We were happy with the way we competed from start to finish.”

“It was a great learning experience to be back in Chapel Hill and race a really strong North Carolina team,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison.  “Being the first racing in over a month, we came out a little flat at the start of the meet.  We were proud of the fight we displayed in the second half.”

The two men’s team nearly split the 16 contested events as the Tar Heels recorded nine wins and the Mids won seven events.  After North Carolina won the opening 200 medley relay, Navy won each of the next three and four of the next five races.  That run started with Luke Johnson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) winning the 1000 freestyle by 12 seconds with his clocking of 9:15.92.  Daniel Cook (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Jack Dunworth (Jr., Austin, Texas) then finished first (1:39.36) and second (1:39.87), respectively, in the 200 freestyle.

Caleb Mauldin (So., Chesapeake, Va.) followed by winning the 100 backstroke by two-hundredths of a second with his effort of 49.44.  North Carolina would win the next event, the 100 breaststroke, then Micah Oh (Jr., Millersville, Md.) led a 1-2-3-4 Navy finish in the 200 fly.  Oh won the race with a time of 1:49.72.

“We built an early lead through the first half of the meet and North Carolina, to their credit, came back really well in the second half,” said Roberts.

North Carolina won the next seven events to build some separation from Navy.  Included in that span were Johnson being edged for the win in the 500 free by 15-hundredths of a second and Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) placing second in three-meter diving by just five points.  Buchter would go on to win the one-meter board by four points with a score of 361.20.  The last individual event of the meet saw Ethan Tack (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.) win the 200 individual medley in a time of 1:51.08.

The final event of the meet, the men’s 400 freestyle relay, may have been the best one of the entire dual.  Navy’s team trailed by eight-tenths of a second through the first half of the race.  Dunworth was the third Mid to enter the water and he brought Navy back to within five-hundredths of a second.  Dominick Wallace (Jr., La Jolla, Calif.) cut the deficit down to three-hundredths of a second after 50 yards, then he posted a time of 23.71 over his last length of the pool to give Navy the victory by two-hundredths of a second.  In all, the Mids won the race with a time of 3:00.25.

“I was extremely pleased that we didn’t back down after North Carolina’s run of success,” said Roberts.  “Our individual medley swimmers did a good job to bring some momentum back to us heading into the relay, which turned out to be a terrific way to end the meet.”

Navy’s women’s team totaled six second-place finishes during the meet.  Erin Scudder (Sr., Western Springs, Ill.) placed second in the 1000 free (10:14.55) and 500 free (5:00.98), Sydney Harrington (Sr., Boca Raton, Fla.) finished in second place in the 200 fly (2:01.05) and 100 fly (54.35), Jamie Miller (Sr., Rochester Hills, Mich.) was the runner-up in the 200 backstroke (2:01.24) and Meghan Gerdes (Jr., Spring, Texas) took the silver medal on the three-meter diving board (298.73).

“Erin and Sydney each raced really well after our winter training camp,” said Morrison.  “We are excited to now have three weeks to prepare for our next meet and the start of our championship meet season.”

“I was happy and proud of the way we competed today,” said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald.  “It is always tough to compete in a new environment, especially when the competition is so strong.  All of our divers did some good things today.  It was big for Meghan to pull out second place and Bradley to earn the win.”

The Navy diving teams will play host to the Navy Diving Invitational Friday through Sunday in Annapolis.  The Navy men’s team as a whole will close its dual meet season by playing host to Columbia on Jan. 31, and the Navy women’s team will next by in action the following day when it takes part in the Navy Invitational in Annapolis.

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