North Carolina
Following the second day of the 2015 Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup Invitational at Koury Natatorium, the UNC women’s swimming and diving team is in second place with 1,159 points, and the Carolina men are in third place with 930 points.
“Today was a tremendous day for our team,” said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. “We showed up a lot better this morning. It’s a good sign of a team that cares to come in and make the corrections we needed to make in terms of warm up preparation, warm down preparation, team support and committing to our races.”
On the women’s side, Emma Nunn captured first place in the 400-yard IM with a season-best time of 4:17.46. Maddy Burns placed third in the same event with a season-best time of 4:19.62, and Caty Hulsey also took fifth place at 4:21.83, her best for the season. In the 100-yard butterfly, Hellen Moffitt placed third (53.31), and Sarah Koucheki took seventh with a season-best 53.93. In the 200-yard freestyle, Ally Hardesty captured second (1:47.72), and Lauren Earp placed eighth at 1:50.60. Katie Munch placed seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.19.
In the 100-yard backstroke, Hellen Moffitt placed second with a time of 53.06, Sarah Hitchens took fifth (54.50) and Caroline Baldwin placed sixth at 54.65. In the one-meter diving event, Elissa Dawson placed second with a season-best score of 314.05 points, and Maria Lohman took third with a season-best 307.10 points. Caroline Baldwin, Katie Munch, Hellen Moffitt and Ally Hardesty took third place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:40.79. In the 800-yard freestyle relay, Ally Hardesty, Lauren Earp, Emma Nunn and Hellen Moffitt placed fourth, clocking a time of 7:20.00.
UNC men’s diving dominated once again Friday night. In the three-meter event, Jack Nyquist took first with 421.75 points, and Ozzie Moyer placed second with a season-best score of 369.70 points. Both Nyquist and Moyer fell just short of their career best scores in the event.
In a highlight of the night for the UNC men the 100-yard butterfly, Sam Lewis captured first place at 47.32, and Ben Colley placed second in the same event at 47.78. Eugene Tee placed fifth in the 400-yard IM with a season-best time of 3:55.51. In the 200-yard freestyle, Mitch DeForest took fifth (1:38.64), and Logan Heck placed sixth with a time of 1:39.84. Nic Graesser placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke at 48.50, while Sam Lewis placed fifth at 48.51. Nic Graesser, Kurt Wohlrab, Sam Lewis and Logan Heck placed third in the 200-yard medley relay, clocking a time of 1:28.20. In the 800-yard freestyle relay, Ben Colley, Mitch DeForest, Lucas Popp and Logan Heck took third with a time of 6:36.28.
“I was proud of the pride and passion that the team showed in all of the individual races,” said DeSelm.
UNC will be back in action at Koury Natatorium Saturday morning for the final day of the 2015 Nike Cup Invitational. The preliminaries will start at 9:30 a.m., and the finals will begin Saturday night at 5:30 p.m.
After the second day of competition, Duke is in first place on the men’s side with 1,289 points. N.C. State is in second place with 988.50 points, and North Carolina is in third place with 930 points. The U.S. Naval Academy is in fourth place with 888 points, followed by Yale with 722.50 points, East Carolina with 650 points and Old Dominion with 397 points.
For the women, Duke also leads with 1,267 points. North Carolina is in second place with 1,159 points, followed by Yale with 1,074 points, N.C. State with 878.50 points, East Carolina with 485.50 points, Marshall with 448.50 points, Old Dominion with 384.50 points, Clemson with 130 points and James Madison with 49 points.
MEN’S TEAM SCORE
Duke 1,289; N.C. State 988.50; North Carolina 930; U.S. Naval Academy 888; Yale 722.50; East Carolina 650; Old Dominion 397
WOMEN’S TEAM SCORE
Duke 1,267; North Carolina 1,159; Yale 1,074; N.C. State 878.50; East Carolina 485.50; Marshall 448.50; Old Dominion 384.50; Clemson 130; James Madison 49
N.C. State
The NC State swimming and diving team continued to post strong performances on the second day of the Nike Cup Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., with 23 top-10 performances and an additional 14 NCAA ‘B’ standard times inside Koury Natatorium Friday.
The Wolfpack men remain in second of seven teams with 998.5 points while the women still stand in fourth of nine teams with 878.5 points through two days of competition.
The Wolfpack men and women finished second in their respective 200 freestyle relay events. The team of Ashlyn Koletic, Kayla Brumbaum, Krista Duffield and Riki Bonnema finished with a time of 1:39.23, while the squad of Hennessey Stuart, Derek Hren, Ryan Held and Joe Bonk finished in 1:27.31.
The women’s 800 freestyle relay team of Alexia Zevnik, Rachel Muller, Kristin Connors and Shelly Craddock capped off Friday night with a second-place finish after posting a time of 7:16.64.
Christian McCurdy placed second in the ‘A’ final of the men’s 400 individual medley with an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 3:51.16, while Austin Snyder finished eighth in the championship heat of the event with a mark of 3:59.83.
Natalie Labonge earned a fifth-place finish of a field of 47 swimmers in the women’s 100 butterfly with an NCAA ‘B’ standard time of 53.52, while McCurdy finished seventh in the men’s 100 fly after stopping the clock at 49.16.
Brumbaum posted a career-best and school record time of 1:00.14 in the women’s 100 breaststroke to top the leaderboard and notch the No. 2 time in the country.
Hren and Patrik Schwarzenbach both made it back the the ‘A’ final of the 100 breaststroke, as Hren finished second after stopping the clock at 52.94 to post the second-fastest time in school history and in the nation, while Schwarzenbach finished in 55.05 to take seventh. Both times stand as NCAA ‘B’ marks.
Zevnik won the women’s 100 backstroke with a time of 51.65 to mark a school record and the No. 1 time in the country. Koletic also competed in the ‘A’ final of the event as she finished fourth after touching the wall at 54.15.
Andreas Schiellerup and Stuart earned a one, two finish in the men’s 100 back. Schiellerup stopped the clock at 46.26 to win the event while Stuart followed in suit with a time of 47.05 to take second.
Rachel Mumma won the women’s one-meter dive out of 39 competitors with a score of 329.15, while Harrison Mitchell finished eighth of a field of 21 divers with a six-dive score of 295.90.
Duke
The second day of the 2015 Nike Cup Invitational saw Duke place multiple swimmers and divers in the championship final of nearly every individual event to maintain the Blue Devils’ leads in the men’s and women’s team standings. The squads also swept the 200-yard medley relays and broke four school records to cap another strong day of competition.
With one full day of events remaining, the Duke men hold a 300-point lead over NC State in second place and the Blue Devil women are in front of North Carolina by a 108-point margin.
The Blue Devils picked up right where they left off in the first event of Friday’s finals session, sweeping the women’s and men’s 200 medley relays. Freshman Mickayla Hinkle, junior Ashleigh Shanley, sophomore Leah Goldman and junior Maddie Rusch clocked the second-fastest mark in school history at 1:38.70, while Duke’s ‘B’ relay of junior Jessie Sutherland, freshman Alyssa Arwood, sophomore Isabella Paez and senior Chelsea Ye took third (1:40.72). On the men’s side, junior Kaz Takabayashi, junior Peter Kropp, senior David Armstrong and junior James Peek combined for a season-best time of 1:25.62 – good for an NCAA provisional cut.
Goldman returned to the water to earn a first-place finish individually in the 100 butterfly, dropping time from her morning swim to go 53.21. She was joined in the championship final by Paez, who took fourth at 53.50. The men placed three Blue Devils in the ‘A’ final of the same event, led by Takabayashi in third overall (48.43). Armstrong followed in fourth (48.52) and junior Joey Maginnis in fifth (48.98).
Freshman Hunter Aitchison broke the 10th school record of the meet in the 200 freestyle, racing to the wall third in the championship final with a mark of 1:47.93. She was joined in the top eight by junior Brittany Friese, who was fifth in 1:49.26. Another rookie, Sean Tate, led a trio of Blue Devils in the men’s 200 freestyle ‘A’ final. Tate was second overall in 1:37.46, with sophomore Nick Bigot just behind him in third (1:37.60) and freshman Riley Hickman in eighth (1:40.74).
Duke claimed five of the eight lanes in the men’s 100 breaststroke ‘A’ final, with Kropp pacing the group in second (53.26). Junior Dylan Payne (53.45), senior Victor Chen (54.36) and junior Mike Seaberg joined Kropp in surpassing the NCAA provisional standard in the event, and Howard garnered a second ‘A’ finals appearance after finishing fifth in the 400 IM. Shanley was the top finisher for the Blue Devils in the women’s 100 breaststroke, as she tapped the wall fourth (1:03.01). A pair of freshmen in Susan Hynes and Alyssa Arwood placed fifth and eighth, respectively, in the same championship heat.
After eclipsing the school record in the 100 backstroke during preliminaries with a 53.30 performance, freshman Maddie Hess claimed third in the event championship final. Sutherland and Hinkle also represented Duke in the ‘A’ final before Takabayashi reset his own program record in the same event on the men’s side with a 47.46 clocking.
Freshman Josh Owsiany headlined a three-four-five finish for the Blue Devils in the men’s 3-meter springboard competition with a finals score of 337.50. He was followed by fellow rookies Evan Moretti and Lee Christensen, and sophomore MaryEllen Targonski paced the Duke women on the 1-meter board in sixth place (286.05).
In the final races of the evening, the Blue Devils’ top relays came in third and fourth, respectively, in the women’s and men’s 800 freestyle relays. Sophomore Verity Abel, who was fourth in the 400 IM, teamed with Aitchison, sophomore Anna Quinn and Friese to rank second on the program’s all-time performance list at 7:18.27.
