UNC Swimming and Diving had another sweep on the weekend, defeating CSU-Pueblo (180-59) and Nebraska-Kearney (185-52) in a similar fashion to Friday evening, as the Bears earned top honors in all 13 events.
"We didn't swim as well as yesterday, but it definitely was not due to lack of effort on the girls' part," head coach Kelly McClanahan said. "It's never an ideal situation to not have a warm-down pool, but it affected all three teams, not just us, so that was a pretty level playing field across the board. The girls pushed through their races and never gave up, and their technique, turns, and starts still looked great. I'm very proud of how we performed overall this weekend, top to bottom, and it should give us some much needed confidence going into our meet against CSU next Wednesday."
Elle Gawronska, Courtney Chrzas, Laura Ramirez, and Kim Kuni opened up the meet again for the Bears, this time in the 400 yard medley relay, earning a combined time of 4:08.72 for a first place finish.
Taking another go at the 1000 free, Carleigh Barrett was still the lone racer to finish under 11 minutes, touching the wall at 10:59.28 for first place.
Karlie O'Connell notched first in the 200 free, finishing at 2:00.19, just ahead of second place finisher Brianna Salanitro (2:02.75).
Valeria Mihhailova glided into first in the 50 free, touching the wall at 25.80, just slower than her time yesterday.
Sydney Kimura and Tara Olson notched first and second in the 400 yard IM, with Kimura finishing at 4:53.83 and Olson finishing just 3/100ths of a second later (4:53.86).
It was Ramirez and Kuni for first and second place in the 100 fly, with just over a second separating the two. Ramirez touched the wall at 1:00.09, while Kuni finished at 1:01.11.
Much like yesterday's races, O'Connell and Mihhailova took top honors in the 100 free, with times of 55.72 and 56.09, respectively.
Salanitro was the fastest racer in the 100 back, earning a time of 1:01.53 in the event.
In the 500 free, Barrett finished first yet again, besting her time from yesterday by four seconds, touching the wall at 5:18.71.
In the last individual race of the weekend, Chrzas and Olson led the way, Chrzas earning top honors at 1:10.38, and Olson following closely behind for second place with a time of 1:12.18.
Mihhailova, Salanitro, Kuni, and O'Connell closed out the meet with another win for UNC, finishing at 3:48.02 in the 400 yard free relay, 11 seconds faster than any other team.
The divers had a better day, pulling out the top-three spots in both the 1M and 3M lists.
"Today was a much better day overall," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. "The girls were able to pick up their energy level a little bit and that definitely helped them."
Savanna Meadows took first in both events, scoring yet another NCAA Zones qualifying score on the 1M (272.20), and a season-best score of 288.70 on the 3M.
"Savanna had a pretty consistent meet and is starting to utilize the little things we work on in practice."
Coming in second place in both events was Taylor Walsh, who earned a season-best 244.85 on the 1M before coming close to her season record on 3M with a 259.15.
"Taylor was consistent again today and that's a really good thing to see going into championship season. She was able to pull out a season best on one meter and was pretty close to yesterday's score on three meter."
Haley Schneider took third in both lists, with a 197.80 score on 1M and a new season-best 211.05 on 3M.
"This was a good weekend for the divers; they learned a lot about themselves and I saw a lot of what we're able to do consistently well."
The UNC squad is back in the Butler-Hancock Swimming Pool next Wednesday, Feb. 3, for their final home meet of the season against Colorado State. The meet will also serve as Senior Day, where two swimmers and three divers will be recognized for their accomplishments in their time with the Bears.
CSU-Pueblo
For the second day in a row, Colorado State University-Pueblo swimmers glided past University of Nebraska-Kearney, 137-91 to clinch their fifth win of the season. The Pack fell to Division I's Northern Colorado for the second consecutive day.
With their weekend sweep of the Lopers, the Pack have now secured four meet victories in the month of January. After just one meet victory in the first three months of the season, Pack swimmers won an impressive nine of their 13 events against UNK.
April McDonough (So. Frisco, Texas) torpedoed her way to three event victories against the Lopers. McDonough secured two second place finishes with runner up times in the 1,000 yard freestyle (11:08.76) and the 500 free (5:24.18). She took third overall in the 100 free with a time of 57.39.
After two event wins over the Lopers on day one, Arianna Rohde (Fr., Anchorage, Alaska) helped the Pack beat UNK in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.67, the second fastest overall time. Jade Irick (Fr., Idaho Falls, Idaho) came in third overall (1:04.30) as the Pack claimed a top-2 finish against the Lopers.
Rohde (1:02.01) and Irick (1:03.90) joined with Magdalena Contreras-Gomez (So., San Luis Potosi, Mexico) to sweep the top three spots in the 100 yard butterfly in their meet against the Lopers. Contreras-Gomez's time of 1:01.69 led the way for the Pack.
The trio of Rohde, Irick, and Contreras-Gomez helped the Pack to a second place finish in the 400 medley relay along with Emiy Foster (Sr., Santa Barbara, Calif.). Foster also topped the Lopers in the 100 yard breaststroke (1:12.99).
Riding three event wins against the Lopers on day one, Samantha Sannes (So., Torrance, Calif.) led the Pack to victory in the 400 yard individual medley (4:57.03). Sannes returned to anchor the Pack to a second place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay.
The Pack now own a 3-3 record in RMAC duals. They will clash with the Lopers again when both teams compete at the RMAC Championships Feb. 10-13 in Grand Junction, Colo.
