North Carolina Press Release
ANNAPOLIS, MD. - Back from their holiday training trips, the University of North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened action in the spring semester portion of their schedule with dual meets win at Navy on Saturday afternoon.
The Carolina men defeated the Midshipmen 170-130, while the Tar Heel women emerged with a 179-119 triumph. Both teams go to 1-3 on the season in dual meet action heading into next Saturday’s dual meet at Koury Natatorium versus Virginia (12 noon start). It will be UNC’s first home meet since early October when it faced Georgia on October 7.
“The upcoming week will be an extremely important one for our swimmers and divers. We need to sharpen things up, race each other in practice and get ready for our upcoming, exciting meets,” said head coach Rich DeSelm as UNC faces Virginia, NC State and Duke in the next 14 days.
The Tar Heel men were led to victory by a trio of multiple event individual winners – Jack Nyquist in diving, Henry Campbell in distance events and the 200 IM and Jorden Merrilees in the 200 free and 200 back. Altogether, the Tar Heels won 11 events on the men’s side. The Carolina women also won 11 events with senior Macey Arnold sweeping the distance events and junior Elissa Dawson winning both diving events. The Tar Heel women won both relays, and five other Tar Heel women captured one event each.
“It was great to finally have our swimmers and divers compete again, having not competed since December,” said DeSelm. “We always enjoy competing against Navy, watching them honor their seniors, knowing their well-coached teams will fight us to the wall every time.”
DeSelm had particular praise for the UNC diving contingent.
“The divers had a terrific day, winning both boards for both the men and women and, especially for the men, having a lot of depth. As has been the case many times, divers Elissa Dawson and Jack Nyquist continue to lead our team, win events and build their readiness for ACCs and NCAAs,” said DeSelm. “Behind them, we have a terrific group working hard and developing. The divers’ training trip over the break was extremely productive.
“On the swimming side, we had some strong racing, but the times are not where we need to be and we will need to be, much sharper next weekend and from now on,” said DeSelm. “We won enough events and had enough depth to come out victorious, but are a bit rusty and tired from training hard and from some travel.
“In today’s meet, for the women, Macey Arnold won the two distance events while regular team leaders such as Hellen Moffitt, Caroline Baldwin, Sarah Hitchens, Caty Hulsey, Sarah Koucheki and Emily Slabe played a prominent role over the course of the day. It was also great to see a freshman get her hand on the wall first – Susanna LaRochelle in the 200 Back. Our men were challenged the entire day and, fortunately, several of our men stepped up to carry the team. Henry Campbell scored victories using some great race strategy in the 1000 Free, 500 Free and 200 IM. Jorden Merrilees pulled out some terrific finishes on his way to winning the 200 Free and 200 Back and anchoring our winning 400 Free Relay. Senior Lucas Popp had a nice day in his swims in the 50, 100 and 200 Freestyles. Freshman Collier Cobb won the 200 Butterfly with a great back half.”
Navy Press Release
ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Lauren Barber (So., New Wilmington, Pa.) and Marlin Brutkiewicz (Sr., Mobile, Ala.) won a combined five events to highlight the efforts of the Navy swimming and diving teams in losses to North Carolina Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. In the men’s meet, the Tar Heels (1-3) recorded a 170-130 victory over the Mids (7-1), while the No. 15 North Carolina women’s team (1-3) posted a 179-119 win over Navy (7-1).
“I thought we matched up well with North Carolina heading into this meet,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “The guys have been training really well, especially since we got back here (after Christmas). We had some really strong swims. Where we could have been a little better was finishing in some of the early races. It seems Carolina got to the wall just a little stronger. And we always want to work on starts, turns and finishes, the bookends of our sport.”
“Overall, we did a great job just getting up and racing,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “It has been awhile since we raced (Dec. 3). To come in and win several events and have at least one of the top-three finishers in all of the events is a great way for us to start the 2017 calendar. We can take a lot of positives away from today, starting with that we really can compete against a team at a level such as North Carolina.”
“After taking the past six weeks off from competition,” said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald, “I’m happy with the way our divers have taken their practices into the meet. We did some really good things today and now we have a good idea of what we need to do moving forward the remainder of the regular season and in our championship meets.”
Barber won a trio of individual events on the day. She first claimed the victory in the 100 breaststroke when her clocking of 1:03.51 gave her the win by 1.31 seconds over teammate Elyse MacIssac (Fr., Stafford, Va.). Barber would then win the 200 breaststroke by nearly nine-tenths of a second with her time of 2:16.42. She closed the individual event portion of the meet by recording a time of 2:02.78 to win the 200 individual medley by 2.12 seconds.
“Lauren is training hard and probably more consistently than she has since she has been here,” said Morrison. “She has some goals in her mind and whenever we put a challenge in front of her like bringing in a nationally ranked team in North Carolina to race she certainly is one of the leaders on the team to take that challenge to heart and really get after it.”
Brutkiewicz nearly matched Barber’s performance as he won both breaststroke events before placing third in the 200 IM. His time of 54.72 gave him the victory in the 100 breast by four-tenths of a second, he posted a time of 1:59.69 to win the 200 breast by almost nine-tenths of a second and he touched the wall in the 200 IM with a time of 1:54.24.
Navy’s men’s team had a strong start to the meet as James Wilson (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.), Brutkiewicz, Ryan Bailey (Sr., Boardman, Ohio) and Connor Davis (Jr., Shelton, Conn.) combined for a time of 1:30.53 to win the 200 medley relay by 1.09 seconds over another Navy foursome. The second-place team of Hayes McCullagh (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.), Harold Choo (Jr., Paramus, N.J.), Zach Piedt (So., Fort Mill, S.C.) and Michael Bundas (Sr., Saline, Mich.) recorded a time of 1:31.62 in their lane.
Recording the first individual event victory on the day for either Navy team was Casey Lawson (So., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) as she won the 200 freestyle by just under four-tenths of a second with her effort of 1:51.58. Also winning an individual event for the Navy women’s team was Delaney Walz (Fr., Mays Landing, N.J.), who won the 200 butterfly by 2.49 seconds with her time of 2:01.78.
Members of the Navy men’s team also claimed two additional event victories on the day. Joseph Jaime (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) placed first in the 100 free by almost one second with his time of 44.94, and McCullagh posted a time of 49.65 to win the 100 fly by nine-hundredths of a second.
Navy women’s swimmers combined for eight first or second-place showings in the 12 individual events, while the Navy men’s team accrued 11 first or second-place efforts on the day.
The Navy teams will continue their respective dual meet seasons one week from today when both compete at Penn State.
