In its 19th-place finish at the NCAA women’s championship meet at Auburn this weekend, North Carolina’s swimmers scored 44 points.
Of those, sophomore Stephanie Peacock had a hand in scoring 42.
Peacock broke a 22-year-old NCAA record in the 1650-yard freestyle with a title-winning time of 15 minutes, 38.79 seconds. She also placed third in the 500-yard freestyle and led off for UNC’s 800-yard freestyle relay squad.
UNC’s only other individual points came from Cari Blalock, who set a personal best in prelims for the 400-yard individual medley and scored two points for the Tar Heels with her 15th-place swim in finals.
The remaining six points were tacked on by UNC’s 800-yard freestyle relay team of Peacock, Danielle Siverling, Katie Nolan and Blalock. Both performances merited honorable-mention All-America honors.
“We passed our recent history, which has been that we’ve underachieved for the NCAA meet,” coach Rich DeSelm said.
“But it’s a hard meet to be invited to, and you have to be an outstanding athlete and have worked very hard.”
So for young swimmers like Siverling, simply competing at the championship is a small victory.
“It was just a really high-intensity meet,” she said. “It was great to be part of it, seeing people going so fast and, of course, watching Stephanie’s mile.