UNC swimming and diving takes to ocean for race

North Carolina swimmers weren’t just competing against other swimmers Saturday — they were taking on the ocean.

Even though the event wasn’t required, members of the UNC swimming and diving team benefited from competing in the open-water Pier-2-Pier race in Wrightsville Beach on Saturday.

The race, which is approximately two miles between the Johnny Mercer and Crystal Piers, is dedicated to Ryan Alea Young, a UNC-Wilmington swimmer who died in a car accident in 2009.

“There is still a competitive part of it, but I think that it being at a beach — and some people having some worries about it being an ocean and that kind of thing — there’s a lot more joking around and a lot more of a fun atmosphere to it,” said assistant volunteer coach Chip Peterson.

Coach Rich DeSelm said the race provided an early opportunity for swimmers to race.

“It’s an open water race that’s early in the season that we started offering to our team members as an option if they wanted to go and get a race in and have a day on the beach,” he said.

“We had just under 20 people go, and we’ve had a lot of success with people placing high or winning their division.”

This year, that meant success for former swimmers.

Peterson, who swam for UNC from 2007 to 2010, won the men’s race. He also placed sixth in the 2014 U.S. National Open Water Championship in June for the 5K, qualifying to be on the national open water team, DeSelm said.

Open-water races in the ocean present unique opportunities for swimmers, as there are more tactical elements, including navigation and drafting. The race offered swimmers a chance to shake up their normal routine while still getting an opportunity to train.

“It’s a fun, spirited competition,” Peterson said. “Some of the girls who are more distance-oriented were challenging some of the guys who were more sprint-oriented.”

On the women’s side, UNC sophomore Caty Hulsey won the women’s race. She had never done an open-water race in the ocean before and noticed an immediate difference.

“I think the waves made a big difference,” she said. “I kept zigzagging back and forth in the waves, and it made it a lot harder to keep going on in a straight course.”

Hulsey said the weekend was exciting, yet relaxing.

The race is not associated with the NCAA, and there was a range of competition.

“There were definitely some people that this is what they do — open-water races — and they came across the country to do this event,” Hulsey said.

“There were some other college teams here, like Navy brought their whole women’s team to kind of have like a fun weekend and try to do something like we did.”

Hulsey said the race was more about getting into a competitive mode before the regular season begins against Tennessee in October.

“It was really hard, but I liked the challenge of it,” she said. “It was good to get the season started with something that doesn’t really matter how you do for the team as much as getting your body used to racing again.”

sports@dailytarheel.com