Coach Frank Comfort's Tar Heels scored 686.5 points to claim their 15th conference crown in the 24-year history of the meet. The Tar Heels finished 54.5 points ahead of Virginia, which was second with 632. No. 21 Florida State was third with 577 and Clemson was fourth with 400.5 points. No. 29 Maryland finished fifth with 392 points, N.C. State sixth with 306, Duke seventh with 247 and Georgia Tech eighth with 220.
The meet MVP was Virginia's Mirjana Bosevska, who won three individual events and was on a winning relay team.
Florida State's Chelsie Lerew was the meet's outstanding diver. She finished second in one-meter diving and first in three-meter.
Two Tar Heels won individual championships on the final night of competition. Freshman Kathleen Quinn won the conference title in the 200-yard backstroke as she swam to victory in a career-best time of 1 minute, 59.67 seconds.
Senior Katie Hathaway set her second school record of the meet, swimming to victory in the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:11.85. Hathaway also set a school record Friday night in winning the 100 breaststroke. She finished her career with three ACC titles in the 100-yard breaststroke and two in the 200 breaststroke.
Senior Molly Sullivan started the evening off right for UNC as she finished third in the 1,650 freestyle in 16:32.18. Virginia's Cara Lane won the event for the third straight year in 16:11.49.
The Tar Heels dominated the 200 backstroke, taking 1-2-3-7 in the final. Besides Quinn's ACC championship effort, junior Laura Collier took second in 1:59.81, junior Leigh Sanders was third in a career best time of 2:00.20 and junior Janna Turner took seventh in 2:02.94.
The Tar Heels also fared well in the 100 freestyle by taking second and third places. Junior Christy Watkins finished second in 49.81 while sophomore Jessi Perruquet took third in 50.23. Florida State senior Christy Cech won the title in 49.53.
Hathaway led a 1-2 finish for the Tar Heels in the 200 breaststroke as both she and sophomore Becky Acker earned automatic qualification times for the 2002 NCAA championships. Acker, who won the 200 breaststroke at the 2001 ACC Championships, touched second in 2:12.96, more than a second better than her previous career-best.
