At this year’s ACC Championships, the only things the North Carolina men’s swimming and diving team managed to break were career-best times and school records.

Virginia’s four-year winning streak remained untarnished. The Tar Heels came in second on Saturday 820 to 588, as the Cavaliers swept the ACC Championship in Atlanta, picking up their 12th title in 13 years.

“We had a marvelous weekend for speed,” UNC coach Rich DeSelm said, “but a second-place finish is not what we were hoping for.

“We respect that UVa. is a strong, multi-championship reigning team and we just didn’t have enough depth to overcome them for a team title.”

This year’s championship team was propelled by members of a strong senior class — all of whom put up competitive times at their final ACC meet.

“It’s always a good motivator to go up against hard teams like UVa.,” senior Tommy Wyher said. “You know they’re going to show up and swim hard and I think, as a team, that makes us want to be better.”

Senior Tyler Harris won both the 200 and 400-yard individual medley, cruising to a career-best time in the latter by breaking his own school record and nabbing an NCAA ‘A’ cut time.

Senior captain Joe Kinderwater pulled a second-place finish in a come-from-behind effort in the 1650-yard freestyle.

Wyher topped the podium as an ACC Champion after a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 47.13. Wyher also took second in the 100-yard butterfly, as his 46.84 time was edged out by a UVa. swimmer by .01 seconds.

“Tommy traditionally has a very challenging event order,” DeSelm said. “To go 100 fly, 100 back and lead off a relay is just a lot. He set a lot of school records for us and was able to rebound from being touched out in the 100 fly.”

Senior Vinny Pryor placed fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke, crushing his previous career best time by more than a second.

The outgoing senior class has a special place in DeSelm’s heart, as it is the fourth-year head coach’s first true recruiting class.

“We have a huge senior class that we’ll be very, very challenged to replace in terms of talent and accomplishments in and out of the pool,” he said. “They propelled us to a nationally recognizable team.”

Junior Steve Cebertowicz became UNC’s first ACC Champion in the 100-yard freestyle since 1994 and Tom Luchsinger grabbed the first title for UNC in the 200-yard butterfly in more than a decade.

“The ACC is becoming a stronger and stronger conference,” DeSelm said.

“I think we’ve all realized that we swim and dive our best when we focus on performing and doing it for our school and our teammates and the joy of the sport versus trying to score points or get a win or overcome a reigning champion. I think we need to try to remember why we do what we do and focus on what we have control over.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.