Just 15 hours after the University of North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished its dual meets with NC State and Virginia, the Tar Heels were back in the pool Saturday morning as they swept Duke in dual meet action at Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion.
The Tar Heel women defeated the Blue Devils 179-121, pulling away in the second half of the meet to score a comfortable victory. The North Carolina men and the Duke men traded the lead for much of the meet with Duke carrying a lead into the final 5 events before Carolina rallied for a 156-142 triumph.
With the win, the #16 Tar Heel women improved to 7-3 on the season and 2-2 in the ACC. The #19 UNC men improved to 7-3 overall and 3-1 in conference action. The Duke women are now 7-3 overall and 3-1 in the ACC while the Blue Devil men are 6-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
“These back-to-back meets, last night at home against Virginia and NC State and today at Duke, gave our teams an opportunity to rehearse the intensity and demands of a multi-session competition. Today, we had both a tremendous will to win and willingness to be uncomfortable,” said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. “Obviously, we are happy to come away with two wins, but the leadership, attitude and resolve of the team was great to see. At the halfway point, our women were tied and men down by 15 and we knew we had to respond. Our swimmers and divers stepped up their resolve, intensity and execution. It was awesome to see their response to the challenges.”
The two teams combined to set eight Taishoff Pavilion records, including six by the Tar Heels. Rachel Canty set a pool record in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke at 1:01.68, Hellen Moffitt recorded a pool mark in the 100 fly at 53.29 and Kendall Surhoff broke the pool record in the 400 individual medley at 4:19.80. UNC’s women’s 200 free relay also set a pool record at 1:31.31.
On the men’s side, Nic Graesser set a pool mark in the 100 back at 48.40 while Sam Lewis broke the pool record in the 100 fly at 47.32.
Both teams won 10 of 16 events in achieving their victories. The UNC women won six of the last eight events in the meet to pull away for a 171-129 win. Although the Tar Heel men were swept in the two relays they won the meet’s 12th through 15th events to pull away with Eugene Tee scoring the clinching victory in the 400 IM.
On the women’s side, Hellen Moffitt came up big with wins in three individual events – 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly. Senior Rachel Canty was also a two-event winner as she took both breaststroke events. Both Lauren Earp (200 free) and Ally Hardesty (100 free) won individual events and swam on the victorious 200 free relay.
UNC seniors Mitch DeForest and Nic Graesser as well as junior diver Jack Nyquist all won a pair of individual events to lead the Tar Heels to their hard fought win over the Blue Devils. DeForest won the 200 and 500 freestyles, Graesser swept the two backstroke events and Nyquist won on both boards. Nyquist had a score of 444.75, just shy of his career best of 445.73.
“The last few meets of the college season, including this weekend’s final dual meets, is a time when we honor our seniors. Last night, we had a packed house in Koury Natatorium for our Senior Day,” said DeSelm. “Every senior had family members in Chapel Hill for the two meets and a senior banquet tonight. This class has been such an important one in the development of our team culture. They believe in the coaches, in each other and all love being at UNC. We are excited for the Championship season, with our Carolina College Invitational next week, the ACC Championships later in February, the NCAA’s and, of course, this summer’s Olympic Trials.”
The Tar Heels will host the Carolina College Invitational at Koury Natatorium next weekend with prelims each day Friday through Sunday at 10 a.m. and finals each day at 6 p.m.
Duke
A number of Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion records went down Saturday as the Blue Devils wrapped up the regular season against Tobacco Road rival North Carolina on Senior Day. The Duke men kept things close with the Tar Heels, who emerged with a narrow 156-142 victory. The Blue Devil women lost to North Carolina, 179-121.
After honoring the 11 members of its senior class, Duke opened the meet in thrilling fashion, out-touching the Tar Heels in both 200-yard medley relays. The Blue Devils also received an early lift in diving, as freshman Mackenzie Willborn bested the field on the 1-meter springboard (295.28) and rookie Evan Moretti was second in the same event on the men’s side.
Sophomores Verity Abel and Matt Johnson kept the momentum going with a pair of first-place finishes in the 1,000 freestyle.
“Our divers did a great job at the very beginning to get us started and then the medley relays came out and did what they did and Matt Johnson won the 1,000,” said head coach Dan Colella. “It absolutely got everybody ignited, and I think this is probably one of the best performances out of our group this season.”
Johnson smashed his own program record of 9:16.58 with a swift 9:08.00 clocking.
“It’s absolutely remarkable, Colella said of Johnson. “He’s had a great three weeks of training, sort of our last big push as we get into the taper period. He has been looking better and stronger every week throughout the season. He was just flat-out determined that he wanted to try to break his school record today. Congratulations to Matt on a phenomenal swim. I think that will set him up for some really big performances at ACCs.”
North Carolina claimed the next few events until the Blue Devils responded with a one-two-three finish in the men’s 100 breaststroke. Junior Peter Kropp led the way in 54.16, followed by classmates Dylan Payne (54.77) and Mike Seaberg (54.86). Sophomore Isabella Paez was first to the wall in the women’s 200 butterfly (1:59.81) and juniors Maddie Rusch and James Peek swept the 50 freestyle races. Rusch’s mark of 22.80 broke a four-year old Taishoff record of 22.99.
Kropp returned to the water to take the 200 breaststroke in 2:01.64 and Abel also collected her second win in the 500 freestyle, turning in a time of 4:52.05. Trailing the Tar Heels by 12 late in the meet, the men saw junior Michael Miller take second in the 400 IM and closed out competition by edging the Tar Heels in the 200 freestyle relay. Senior David Armstrong, Seaberg, Payne and Peek combined for a 1:19.70 performance to reset the previous facility record of 1:21.08, which was established by Clemson in 2012.
“All season long, one of the things we’ve really harped on is, regardless of the meet, we need to swim like it’s our last meet of the season,” Colella said. “It’s something they’ve done a phenomenal job of all year – standing up and competing really, really hard. They’ve realized they’re capable of doing things they didn’t think they could do.”
Prior to Saturday’s action in the pool and on the boards, seniors Armstrong, Victor Chen, Linsay Cooper, Kathryn Eckhart, Delaney Lagrew, Kendall McClenney, Lexi Mendes, Kiera Molloy, Kenny Ng, Ryan Prince and Chelsea Ye were recognized for their contributions over the past four seasons.
“When we recruited them, we said, we can really do something special here,” Colella said of the senior class. “We were hoping they would come to Duke and help us build something. We have been incredibly blessed to have them. They have been great leaders. This senior class has challenged me in a lot of different ways, which I think has only made me a better coach. As a result of it, we absolutely have a better program.”
The Duke women wrapped up the regular season with a 7-3 ledger (3-1 ACC) and the men with a record of 6-4 (2-2 ACC). Both squads will send representatives to the Carolina College Invitational this Friday through Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C., before heading to the ACC Championships in Greensboro.
