Virginia Press Release
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—The Virginia swimming and diving teams swept North Carolina Saturday afternoon (Jan. 21) at Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Cavaliers won 21 events.
The No. 5 Virginia women (6-0) defeated the Tar Heels, 173.5-121.5, while the No. 13 Cavalier men (5-1) took down UNC, 170-130. It is the first time since 2013 that UVA’s men defeated North Carolina.
“This was a strong day for our teams,” UVA head coach Augie Busch said. “We were significantly better than yesterday in most areas and I credit our focus as the main reason. The men and women were on a mission today and it showed from the moment they walked on the pool deck. I am proud of their effort. We’re looking forward to racing some of the best swimmers in the country next weekend at NC State.”
Virginia started and ended the day strong, winning three of the four relays outright (women’s 200 medley and 400 freestyle and men’s 200 medley) and tying for the win in the men’s 400 free relay.
Senior leadership was once again a big key to the victories, as Cavalier fourth-years touched first in nine individual events. Leah Smith (Pittsburgh, Pa.) won the women’s 200 free (1:46.43), 500 free (4:46.35) and 1,000 free (9:38.38), while Laura Simon (Simmern, Germany) swept the women’s breaststroke events, taking the 100 in 1:01.09 and the 200 in 2:12.78. Kaitlyn Jones (Newark, Del.) won the women’s 200 fly (1:55.89) and the 200 IM (2:00.15), while Matt Lockman (Charlottesville, Va.) and Austin Quinn (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) picked up wins in the men’s 50 free (20.47) and 200 IM (1:49.52), respectively.
The Virginia freshman class won seven events, with Ted Schubert (Ashland, Va.) sweeping the men’s butterfly events, including the 100 (48:50) and 200 (1:47.21). UVA swept the 100 free events, with Morgan Hill (Olney, Md.) winning the women’s race in 50.03 and John Whiteside (Fairfield, Conn.) taking the men’s (45.15). Joe Clark (Worcester Park, Great Britain) captured the men’s 100 back (47.58).
Other UVA winners included junior Caitlin Cooper (Atlanta, Ga.) in the women’s 100 back (55.86), redshirt sophomore Brendan Casey (Santa Monica, Calif.) in the men’s 200 back (1:46.10) and sophomore Sam Magnan (Bethlehem, Pa.) in the men’s 1,000 free (9:09.77).
In diving, freshman Bryce Shelton (Vienna, Va.) placed second on men’s 1-meter (332.18) and 3-meter (371.03), while sophomore Kylie Towbin (New Canaan, Conn.) was second on women’s 3-meter with 327.45 points and fellow sophomore Kirsten Parkinson (Stamford, Conn.) was second on women’s 1-meter with 280.35 points.
North Carolina Press Release
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned to Koury Natatorium for the first time since October 7, falling short against a pair of nationally-ranked teams from the University of Virginia.
The fifth-ranked Cavalier women defeated the Tar Heels 173.5-121.5 while the 13th-ranked Virginia men downed the Tar Heels 170-130. The UVA women improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the ACC. The Cavaliers’ men’s squad is now 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference. The Tar Heel teams moved to both 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the ACC.
On Saturday, the Carolina women took first place in five of 16 events while the Tar Heel men took first place in six events and tied in one relay.
UNC’s divers were stellar again as they swept all four events. For the women, Elissa Dawson won the three-meter with 354.08 points and she captured the one-meter event with 309.68. Senior Jack Nyquist swept the men’s boards, scoring 357.85 in one-meter and 394.73 in three-meter diving.
Hellen Moffitt captured a pair of individual events for Carolina as she touched first in the 200 backstroke in 1:56.65 as well as in the 100 fly where she recorded a time of 53.79. UNC’s Sarah Hitchens won the 50 freestyle in 22.87.
For the men, senior Jorden Merrilees continued his excellent season by winning the 200 free in 1:37.61 and the 500 free in 4:26.67. In the latter race, he touched out teammate Henry Campbell by just one one-hundredth of a second. Junior Craig Emslie won the 100 breaststroke in 54.64 and the Tar Heels made a sweep of the breaststroke events when Michael McBryan captured the 200-yard event in 1:59.79.
UNC’s 400-yard freestyle relay of J.T. Casey, Philip Perdue, Lucas Popp and Jorden Merrilees tied for first place with a time of 2:59.33.
“We had a lot of things that were trending positively today,” said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. “UVA’s women are a Top 5 team in the country. Their men have a historically successful program. We’ve had some great battles with them. I had hoped that we might have the better battle with them today.
“We’ve got to keep the long view, and keep working on what we need to work on. We’ll get back Monday and look forward to next week when we have two more big opponents. Duke is a much improved (Saturday at 1 p.m.) and the NC State men and women are Top 10 teams (Friday at 5 p.m. in Raleigh. We have a big week ahead and some great opportunities.
In his post-meet comments, DeSelm highlighted the work of transfer Jorden Merrilees and well as the consistency of UNC’s diving corps.
“Jorden’s extremely talented. It’s a bit of an unusual situation with a first-year swimmer here being a senior. Jordan missed by just hundredths of a second making his 2016 Olympic Team for Australia. He has brought talent and a great work ethic to us and he is a veteran and a great racer. He knows how to get his hand on the wall which you saw today in winning those close races.”
Carolina swims in Raleigh Friday against NC State at 5 p.m. The Heels will host Senior Day next Saturday at 1 p.m. with pre-meet festivities starting at approximately 12:30 p.m.
