The University of North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams ended the home portion of their 2014-15 dual meets seasons on a high note by sweeping the Duke Blue Devils Friday at Maurice J. Koury Natatorium.
The Tar Heel women prevailed by a score of 175-133 while Carolina’s men triumphed by a score of 176-90. The Tar Heels have less than 24 hours before they meet conference foe NC State at Carmichael Natatorium in Raleigh, N.C. at 1 p.m. in a matchup of a quartet of nationally-ranked teams.
Friday was Senior Night at Koury Natatorium as it was the final home dual meet for a cadre of UNC seniors. Women’s seniors included Kelly Corish, Danielle Siverling and Hannah Runyon-Hass. The Tar Heel men’s seniors included Patrick Myers, Tyler Hill, David Speese, Brian Bollerman, Dom Glavich, Ryan Fox, Clifton Gordon, Graham Williams and Nick Lowe.
The victories Friday lifted the UNC men to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the ACC while the Tar Heel women are now 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the ACC. The Duke women lost for only the second time this year and are 8-2 overall, 2-2 in the ACC. The Duke men are now 4-5 overall and 0-3 in the ACC.
Coach DeSelm was duly proud of his Senior Class.
“This is a great group of seniors,” said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. “These women were unbelievable for UNC. They are first class people. We’ve got a bigger group on the men’s side. They’ve helped me grow as a leader and helped solidify this team. They are all tough and they are all good. We hate to see seniors go. But that’s the whole idea. They are supposed to come and compete and graduate and go on with the rest of their lives.”
Following are highlights from Friday night’s meet.
DUAL MEET NOTES (UNC MEN)
• The Tar Heels swept the top three places in the 200-yard freestyle as Ben Colley at 1:37.63 and Philip Perdue at 1:37.97 set career best times. Logan Heck finished third in a season best 1:39.38. Colley’s previous career best was 1:38.26 at 2014 Nike Cup and Perdue’s best was a high school clocking of 1:38.54.
• Clifton Gordon and Patrick Riess took second and third place in the 100-yard backstroke with season best times of 49.52 and 50.27, respectively.
• Dom Glavich was the runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke with a season best 55.49 (56.83 at Nike Cup).
• Matt Conway was the runner-up in the 200 fly and had a season best 1:48.75 (previous best 1:49.05).
• Philip Perdue captured the men’s 50 free in a season best 20.59. Chris Gondek and J.T. Casey finished second and third in career best times of 20.61 and 20.63. Their previous bests were 20.72 and 21.19, respectively.
• Philip Perdue won the 100-yard freestyle in a career best 44.98 (previous best was 45.07 in high school). The Tar Heels finished 1-2-3-4 in the event. Junior Chris Gondek also had a career best time of 45.42 in finishing fourth (45.47 was his previous best).
• Kurt Wohlrab won the 200-yard breaststroke in a season best 1:59.78, the first Tar Heel to go under two minutes this year.
• Matt Conway won the 500 freestyle in a season best time of 4:33.30. Graham Williams and Bailey Burt also had season bests in the race.
• Clifton Gordon won the 100 fly in a career best 48.35, breaking his previous top time of 49.08. Nick Lowe, Christian Caveness and Will Close all had season best times.
DUAL MEET NOTES (UNC WOMEN)
•Caroline Baldwin took second place in the 100-yard backstroke at 55.66, lowering her time of 55.88 at Nike Cup.
• Junior Annie Goessling won the 100-yard breaststroke in a career best time of 1:03.44. She shaved more than a second over her previous career best of 1:04.83.
• Three Tar Heels established career best times in the 200-yard butterfly led by event winner Kendall Surhoff in 1:59.95 (previous best 2:00.79). Alli Haufler went 2:00.29 (previous best 2:00.54) and Kacy Rhyne went 2:03.45 (previous best 2:05.80).
• Katie McKay of UNC won the 50-yard freestyle in a career best 23.18 (previous best 23.75). Katie Ford was third in a season best 23.31.
• Katie McKay finished second in the 100 free in a career best time of 50.81 (previous best) was 51.45.
• Alli Haufler had a career best time in 55.28 Her previous top was were 55.42.
• Kendall Surhoff won the 200-yard individual medley in a career best time of 2:02.35. Her previous career best time was 2:02.59.
NEXT UP: The Tar Heels turn right around and travel to Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday to meet the NC State Wolfpack. The meet starts at 1 p.m. at Carmichael Natatorium. All four teams are ranked in the Top 20 of this week’s CSCAA polls.
The Blue Devils turned in several season-best times in the pool and received strong contributions from the diving corps, but ultimately fell to a pair of nationally-ranked North Carolina squads Friday evening in the regular season finale at Koury Natatorium.
The fifth-ranked Tar Heel women defeated Duke by a 175-113 score while the 20th-ranked North Carolina men posted a 176-90 victory. The Blue Devil women conclude the regular season at 8-2 (2-2 ACC) and the men’s team at 4-6 (0-4 ACC). For the women’s program, the eight dual meet victories mark the most since the 2007-08 campaign.
“We came to race tonight,” said head coach Dan Colella. “The score doesn’t reflect it by any stretch, but I think they did a nice job of racing. We had some people really stand up. I think we would have liked to seen it a lot closer tonight than it was, but I’m not disappointed with the way they performed. There are some things that came out of tonight that are great signs of what we’re going to be doing at ACCs.”
Despite the team losses, Duke rounded out its dual meet slate with a number of standout performances. Freshman Verity Abel kicked off the individual events by displaying great back-half speed in the 1,000-yard freestyle. The Westport, Conn., native took North Carolina’s Liliana Casso to the wall in the race before taking second at 10:07.33. Fellow rookie Matt Johnson was also impressive in the same event on the men’s side, clocking a season-best mark of 9:30.65 in a third-place finish.
After the Tar Heels swept the top spots in the next couple of swimming events, sophomore Peter Kropp countered with a win in the 100 breaststroke (54.80). Freshman Isabella Paez followed by besting the field in the 200 butterfly at 1:59.47.
The Blue Devil divers provided points as well, with sophomore Kirby Quinn placing third in the 3-meter competition (297.82) and freshman MaryEllen Targonski taking third on the 1-meter board (285.22). Both divers’ scores surpassed the NCAA Zones qualifying standards for the respective event.
“To come in third, I felt really good because I’ve been working a lot on my consistency,” Quinn said. “I’ve been pretty consistent on 3-meter in the past two meets, and hopefully that can lead me into ACCs.”
Other highlights on the evening included second-place showings by Johnson in the 500 freestyle (4:37.25) and sophomore Maddie Rusch in the 100 butterfly (54.99). Freshman Leah Goldman and sophomore Michael Miller were both second to the wall in the 200 IM, while Goldman also took third in the 100 freestyle.
The Duke women finished second to the Tar Heels in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
“The Tar Heels were tough,” Colella said. “They raced incredibly well tonight. Hats off to them. For us, we had a number of people who went season-best times. It was nice to see those performances. There have been some years where I don’t feel like we’ve stood up and raced when we’ve come here; tonight we did.”
Select Blue Devil swimmers will return to North Carolina’s Koury Natatorium next weekend to compete in the Carolina College Invitational Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7-8.
