UNC Sweeps Clemson

CLEMSON, South Carolina, January 13. IN North Carolina head coach Frank Comfort's final trip to Clemson in his 30-year coaching career at UNC, the Tar Heel men's and women's swimming and diving teams rewarded him with a pair of dual meet victories. The women were dominant in their effort, beating the Tigers 210-89. The men built an early lead and held off a late Clemson rally to win 159.5-140.5.

It was four years ago in UNC's dual meet at Clemson that the Tar Heels gave Comfort his 500th career victory. He will retire at the end of this season having won more dual meets than any coach in collegiate history.

The Carolina men evened their record at 2-2 overall and improved to 2-0 in the ACC. Clemson is 6-3 and 2-3 in the ACC. The Tar Heel women are 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the ACC. Clemson is 6-5 and 2-4.

After Clemson won both 200-yard medley relays both Carolina teams rallied by dominating the first half of the meet prior to the initial diving break.

On the women's side, sophomore Whitney Sprague won the 1000-yard freestyle in a season best 9:47.14, then UNC went 2-3-4-5 in the 200-yard freestyle. Megan Steeves led a 1-2-3 finish in the 100-yard backstroke followed by the first of three Alison Clemens wins in the meet in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:40.72. UNC went 1 through 4 in the 200 fly with Lindsey Marck recording the first of her two wins. After Clemson won the 50, UNC finished off the first half of the meet with a 1-3-4-5 finish in one-meter diving. The win went to Laura Filip with 270.60 points.

The women continued to excel in the second half of the meet as freshman won the first three events after the initial diving break -Eliza Butts in the 100 free, Ashley Howard in the 200 back and Alison Clemens in the 200 breast. Altogether UNC won the last nine events of the meet to post the lopsided win.

Sprague went 4:50.90, a season best in the 500 free, followed by Marck's win leading a 1-2-3 placing in the 100 fly. Lauren Karatanevski led a top three sweep of three-meter diving with a score of 298.20. Carolina's Clemens won the individual medley for her third win and then the Tar Heel unit of Steeves, Aubrette Biegel, Butts and Kelsey Morrissy swam a 3:27.05 to claim the 400 free relay.

On the men's side the Tar Heels bounced back from the initial relay loss to claim a win with strong work in the distance free events, the backstrokes and the diving events plus another pair of opportunistic wins.

After the relay, Carolina won five of the next seven events through the first diving break. Freshman Chip Peterson went 9:13.13, his season best, to win the 1000 free with Philip Owen and Jason McLaughlin going 2-3. Sophomore Hank Browning and junior Keith Laabs followed with wins in the 200 free and 100 back. Clemson then sandwiched wins around a 1-2 finish by Carolina in the 200-yard butterfly with Yi-Khy Saw and McLaughlin taking the top two spots.

Carolina put the meet out of reach by winning four of the next five events. Ryan Funderburk (333 points) and Jon Fox (327.07) led a top two finish in one-meter diving. Junior captain Robby Swendiman followed with a decisive win in the 100 free and then freshman Jeff James and Laabs claimed the top two spots in the 200 back.

After a Clemson win in the 200 breast, the distance corps again came up big with Peterson and Owen going 1-2 at 500 yards. Clemson won three of the last four events, including a 1-2 sweep in the 400 free relay, but that was offset by the Tar Heels' brilliant diving effort on the three-meter board as Funderburk (340.05), Fox (333.22) and freshman David Solarz (293.77) led a one through three sweep.

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