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The Daily Tar Heel

Personal-Best Times Fall In 1st Day of Nike Cup

After day one of the three-day meet, the No. 11 UNC women's swimming and diving team (4-1) was victorious in three of the evening's six events, while the men (3-2) placed first only in the one-meter dive. Due to a computer glitch discovered late Thursday, official team scores were not available at press time.

The competition resumes today with preliminaries at 10 a.m., and the finals for those events begin at 6 p.m.

"I'm delighted with what we've done," Comfort said. "I only anticipate that we'll surpass it in the next two days."

The women were led by Christy Watkins, who set a Nike Cup record with her time of 22.49 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. She led the race from the onset, defeating Kansas' Amy Gruber by nearly .5 seconds.

"She knows how to do her best at the right times," Comfort said of Watkins. He paused and then said, "Wow. That was really impressive."

Watkins also helped UNC pull out the 200-yard freestyle relay, swimming the final lap nearly a second better than Michigan's Laura Kaznecki.

Kelly Weeks was the other individual winner for UNC, swimming the 500-yard freestyle in 4:48.45, her career best time. Fellow Tar Heel Whitney Smith placed second in the event.

Though the Tar Heels dominated the Wolverines on the scoreboard, the most impressive swim of the evening was Michigan's 400-yard medley relay.

After defeating UNC by only .2 seconds in a meet three weeks ago, the Michigan relay defeated the Tar Heels by more than five seconds, shattering the Nike Cup and pool records in the process.

The men's team has a tougher opponent in No. 9 Tennessee. It is likely that UNC is close to the Volunteers on the scoreboard, due to the fact that Tennessee's diving team did not attend the meet. The Volunteer divers are competing in a competition at Minnesota.

Diver Eric Poitras was the only victor for the men, winning the 1-meter dive by 23 points.

Yuri Suguiyama nearly won the 500-yard freestyle, but his furious comeback fell short by .06 seconds. Suguiyama trailed winner Casey Dauw of Tennessee by .64 seconds heading into the final lap.

"He just has a really good overkick for a distance freestyler," said UNC's Reid Owen. The overkick in the last 50 yards allowed Suguiyama to nearly draw even in the race.

"That was an awesome comeback," Owen said.

The men's team heads into the weekend with a legitimate chance to defeat a higher-ranked team, a goal that has eluded the swimmers thus far. Georgia, currently ranked 11th, and Minnesota, eighth, both defeated North Carolina earlier this year.

"Today was actually one of our weaker days (in the meet)," Owen said. "Our stronger days are to come."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.

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