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The Daily Tar Heel

Saturday's Swim Meet Prepares Team for Nike Cup

The Tar Heels' 15th ranked women's team and 11th ranked men's team won 195-84 and 187-97, respectively, but the meet appeared to be more of a practice for North Carolina. The Division III Blue Jays failed to place in the top two in any event aside from one, when UNC was disqualified.

Almost every Tar Heel toward the end of the meet swam in exhibition, meaning that the individual finishes did not officially count towards the final score.

The victories boosted the women's record to 4-1, while the men improved to 3-2. Hopkins' women's team fell to 3-3, and the men's team dropped to 3-4.

"Today (it) was much better for us to have a meet as we're preparing for Nike Cup than it (would have been) to have a practice," said UNC coach Frank Comfort. "There's no substitute for racing."

Even though some UNC swimmers did not swim in their premier events at the meet, several of them had multiple victories.

For the women, Jessi Perruquet had the fastest time in both the 50-yard and 500-yard freestyles, though her time of 4:51.56 in the 500 was in exhibition.

"Swimming in a meet like this helps us see what we can do when we're tired, because we've just come off of two hard weeks of training," said Perruquet, who will be competing in four solo events and several relays during the Nike Cup later this week.

Perruquet also had her fastest time of the season, 23.33 seconds, in her 50-yard freestyle victory. She won the event by more than a second, a large margin for a freestyle sprint.

Kelly Weeks had the fastest time in two events for the Tar Heels -- the 1,000-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly. She also led UNC in the 400-yard freestyle relay, although the event was swam in exhibition.

The meet gave Comfort a chance to experiment with his lineups on both the women's and men's squads. Judd Glasco, a distance freestyle specialist on the men's team, took advantage of the opportunity and won the 200-yard butterfly and backstroke events.

"I've been training a lot of butterfly this year," Glasco said. "It really helps my confidence a lot knowing that if I train I can (compete in other events). Hopefully, it will get some other guys going."

Diver Eric Poitras also won two events for the men; he was victorious in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.

"I definitely feel like I've been getting better throughout the year," Poitras said.

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