UNC swimming and diving swept by rivals despite senior success

A weekend that started with the hope of getting rivalry bragging rights ended in misery for the North Carolina swimming and diving team, as the Tar Heels fell in dual meets at N.C. State on Friday and at home against Duke on Saturday.

In Raleigh on Friday, the UNC men lost to the Wolfpack, 192-105, while the women suffered a 185-112 loss.

On Saturday, 19 swimmers were honored for North Carolina on senior day, but the Tar Heels once again came up short — as both the men and the women fell to the Blue Devils.

“It’s pretty easy to sum up the weekend,” head coach Rich DeSelm said. “We lost meets yesterday and today. It’s never fun to lose, and right now we need to find a way to get some wins.”

“But I’ll tell you what, the meet is over and it’s behind us. We gotta learn from it and hopefully our team will be passionate about continuing on, coming in Monday and preparing for whatever the next competition is for each of them.”

Despite the loss, the Tar Heel seniors again performed admirably, with the senior women accounting for seven of North Carolina’s nine wins.

Sarah Hitchens won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in her final home meet.

“I’m going to miss the relays,” Hitchens said. “I love being on relays and love to anchor or lead off; I don’t have a preference. But I love to be on a relay that hypes the environment, and be under pressure ...”

“I will miss that and being with all of my teammates and best friends.”

Senior Hellen Moffitt also had an impressive day, sweeping her three events in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly. Seniors Sarah Koucheki and Abby Fisher won events in their last home meets, and junior diver Elissa Dawson swept the 1- and 3-meter events.

The Tar Heel men were again led by seniors Jorden Merrilees and Michael Meyer, as the two won the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley, respectively.

Also victorious for the Tar Heel men in individual events were fellow senior Christian Caveness and juniors Henry Campbell and Michael McBryan.

Merrilees, who is a senior transfer student, only spent one year wearing Carolina Blue. But it was a special season for the swimmer from North Melbourne, Australia.

“It’s a lot of passion and a lot of tradition,” Merrilees said. “That is probably the biggest thing is trying to fulfill a good history of tradition here at Carolina.”

DeSelm was proud of his swimmers and how they have conducted themselves, both in the pool and in life.

“Of course we want to win, but these guys are winners and quality people that happen to have a great skill of swimming and diving,” he said.

“And a loss cannot take that away from any of them.”

@christrenkle2

sports@dailytarheel.com