Swimming team steps up to compete for injured senior

Before the final race of the ACC championships Saturday night, the North Carolina women’s relay team huddled together. They were locked into second place with almost no chance of catching eventual champion Virginia.

But they had a different goal.

“We’re going to do this one for Steph,” junior Danielle Siverling said.

“Steph” is senior Stephanie Peacock, who had been injured while in the process of breaking her NCAA record in the mile swim. After the race, Peacock was carried out and transported to Moses Cone Hospital for observation. She returned to Chapel Hill late Saturday night.

At the time coach Rich DeSelm said he didn’t know the nature or severity of the injury, but that he was hopeful it wasn’t serious.

At the 1000-yard mark, Peacock led with a time of 9:28.76, besting her previous record of 9:28.92. But during the final 75 yards, Peacock lost steam and ended up finishing second.

Her team carried on her momentum, though.

Together with sophomores Lauren Earp, Hannah Lincoln and Ally Hardesty, Siverling anchored the winning 400-yard freestyle relay in an ACC record time of 3:14.39. The four had won the same meet in the previous year’s competition as underdogs and had decided to approach this race the same way.

Peacock’s injury just added an extra edge.

“The whole team took that as motivation to see her put so much heart into her race,” Siverling said.

Virginia opened up a large lead on the first day of competition and never relinquished it to win its seventh straight ACC title. UNC dropped as low as fourth place after the second day of competition, led by Peacock’s second place finish in the 500 yard freestyle. Siverling attributed some of the problems to first-day jitters, but the Tar Heels finished strong the final two days.

“We had more swims in some of our better and deeper groups,” DeSelm said. “We’ve got a little more talent, they’re working extremely well together, they know it’s a priority, (and) they know the relay points are double points.”

Siverling finished in first place in the 200-yard freestyle on Friday with a school record time of 1:44.43. Senior Cari Blalock also finished first in the 400-yard individual medley ahead of sophomore teammate Emma Nunn in second.

On Saturday, senior Meredith Hoover and Blalock took first and second place in the 200-yard fly, while Earp finished second in the 100-yard freestyle. Sophomore Annie Harrison also placed second in the 200-yard backstroke before the final, record-setting relay.

Throughout the four days of the competition, several UNC swimmers beat their career bests and several new UNC school records were set. In total, UNC’s swimmers eclipsed six school records, including the 50-yard free, 800-yard free relay and 200-yard medley relay.

“All year long, everyone has been training really hard,” Siverling said. “I think across the board … everyone worked harder than they had before.

“It wasn’t really anything specific about the day, it was more just a reflection of what we worked on the entire year.”