Men's Swimming: Tar Heels rally for 3rd-place ACC finish

To say that the North Carolina men's swimming team broke a few records at the ACC championships during the weekend would be an understatement.

After ending both Thursday and Friday in fourth place" No. 16 UNC surged on Saturday to seize third place behind champion Virginia and second-place Florida State while breaking more than 10 school records along the way.

""It took us all meet to catch Georgia Tech" and we did" coach Rich DeSelm told tarheelblue.com on Saturday. We finished stronger and stronger throughout the course of the meet.

""We had some great performances and a number of school records. The biggest thing I'm proud of is that our guys stepped up and raced. The guys were faster at night"" and that's a big key to competing effectively.""

Despite all the broken records at Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center pool" no Tar Heel swimmer had a more memorable weekend than sophomore Tommy Wyher.

He broke two ACC records in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly. With those records" Wyher claimed the conference title in both events — his second straight championship in the backstroke.

""Tommy had a fantastic evening. Winning any conference title is pretty special and winning two in one night is really special" DeSelm told tarheelblue.com.

He qualified for NCAAs. He's really embraced a positive work ethic over the past year" and his competitive fire tonight was fun to watch.""

Wyher and fellow sophomore Joe Kinderwater anchored North Carolina throughout the four-day competition with both earning NCAA bids to nationals" scheduled for later in March.

While the sophomores led the way in scoring the freshman made notable contributions. Wil Singley Steve Cebertowicz Brad Hamilton and Evan Reed all competed well throughout the competition" with Singley and Reed setting school marks to continue the trend of the tournament.

""We broke a lot of records" which should have been expected with these new technology suits DeSelm told tarheelblue.com.

It's a little confusing for any coach to evaluate the whole process but we'll gladly take it because it is a level playing field" and records are made to be broken.""

The Tar Heels rounded out the competition by setting six new school records" just edging out Georgia Tech for third place.

The team will try to ride that momentum as it prepares for the NCAA meet at College Station Texas beginning on March 26.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.