There is hardly ever room for moral victories in the world of sports.
On Saturday afternoon, the North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams left Koury Natatorium with a handful of positives from their competition.
Both Tar Heel teams fell to the visiting Texas Longhorns. The No. 21 UNC women were defeated 172-125 by the No. 2 Longhorns, and the No. 22 UNC men were beaten by the No. 9 Texas, 162-137.
“(We) saw lots of season-best times from our group today,” head coach Rich DeSelm said. “So, that’s promising.”
Senior Caroline Baldwin picked up right where she left off last season and continued to dominate. Baldwin started the day by leading the Tar Heels to a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley race. Baldwin, alongside sophomores Caroline Hauder, Emma Cole and Maddie Smith finished with a time of 1:39.07 minutes. UNC has not lost this season in that event.
Baldwin also took first in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Her 50-yard freestyle time was 22.13 seconds — a season-best. The standout swimmer’s time of 48.24 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle will get her name put on the Koury Natatorium wall. It was a pool record.
“I’ve been wanting to get that for a while,” Baldwin said. “It’s a lot faster than where I was this time last year. So, it’s kind of encouraging for the rest of the season. I’m just going to keep working on the details in practice and hope that it all pays off at the end of the season.”
The UNC men’s breaststroke was one of the highlights of the day, as well. The trio of senior Michael McBryan, junior Austin Sellers and first-year Valdas Abaliksta claimed the top three spots in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke.