DURHAM, North Carolina, February 12. CONFERENCE championship season begins next week, and the ACC Championship meets are among the first and perhaps the most competitive. The University of Virginia Cavaliers have won the past six conference titles for both the men and women, but they will face a heavy challenge in both meets, specifically from the North Carolina Tar Heels. In a recent dual meet between the two teams in Chapel Hill, the meets came down to the end, with UVa taking the women’s win and UNC the men’s.<\/p>\n
Following the recent UNC meet against Duke, Swimming World<\/i> contributor David Rieder caught up with head coach Rich DeSelm and with distance star Stephanie Peacock. DeSelm discusses his much-improved squads that have high expectations for both the conference and NCAA meets. DeSelm’s women’s team has a chance to finish in the top ten in the country, while the men have been consistently ranked in the CSCAA poll as well despite losing their one scorer from last year’s NCAAs, national team butterflyer Tom Luchsinger.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Peacock talked about returning for her senior season after an injury knocked her out of last year’s championship meets. Peacock set an NCAA record in winning the 1650 at NCAAs in 2012 prior to missing last year’s competition, but she returned this past summer to win the 1500 and take silver in the 800 at the World University Games. For more coverage of the ACC Championships, be sure to check out the Morning Swim Show<\/i> episodes from last week in which Rieder joins host Jeff Commings to preview the women’s<\/a> and men’s<\/a> meets.<\/p>\n