North Carolina’s swimming and diving team traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, for a two-day meet starting on Friday. Despite a strong effort, both the men's and women's teams fell to the Cardinals.
What happened?
UNC's men’s and women’s teams are both ranked No. 20, but lost on the men’s side with a score of 241-112 and on the women’s side with a score of 209-144.
At the end of competition Friday, the Tar Heels trailed Louisville’s women’s team 93-74 and the men’s team 110-57, but hoped for a stronger showing Saturday. Instead, the Tar Heels only won two of the swim races and one of the diving events.
Louisville kept the lead by consistently winning races — 29 to be exact — over the competition. Louisville took two of the top-three slots in 28 races, a feat the Tar Heels only managed six times.
On Friday, senior Hellen Moffit won the 200-yard backstroke, senior Jorden Merrilees won the 500-yard men’s freestyle, senior Sarah Koucheki won the women’s 200-yard butterfly and UNC won the women’s 400-medley relay. The two races the Tar Heels won on Saturday were both thanks to Moffitt.
For the diving team, Elissa Dawson won the women’s 3m event and came in second in the 1m. Jack Nyquist won the men’s 1m and the 3m.
Who stood out?
Moffit won three of her four individual races during the meet. Two of those came on Saturday and were the only Tar Heel race victories of the day.