UNC Swimmers Split Dual Meet

After a seven-week hiatus from competition and one week of intense training in Phoenix, the North Carolina swimming and diving teams took back to the waters of Koury Natatorium on Saturday.

The double dual meet pitted UNC against Rutgers and Florida State.

The 11th ranked Tar Heel women (7-1, 2-0 ACC) dominated the meet, winning eight of the 16 events to beat No. 20 FSU 186-114 and Rutgers 207-93.

"We had mixed feelings going in (to the meet) since we had seven weeks off and some hard training," said junior co-captain Jessi Perruquet. "We knew it was going to be tough going into it."

But Perruquet, and the rest of her team, responded well.

Perruquet won both the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyle events in 1 minute, 47.89 seconds and 50.65 respectively.

Junior Kelly Weeks touched the wall first in the 1,000 free in 10:03.53 and the 200 butterfly in 1:59.19.

Senior Christy Watkins won the 50 free in a time of 23.50, junior Whitney Smith took the 500 free in 4:55.77 and junior Becky Acker won the 200 individual medley in 2:05.12.

The 400-yard free relay team of Watkins, Jessie Brosch, Leila Martin and Perruquet won the last event of the meet in 3:27.11.

Despite the win, the women remain focused on the ACC meet at the end of the season.

"We're just getting into the heart of the conference season," Perruquet said. "Sometimes it's hard to remember that dual meets don't count for much overall, but it's definitely a confidence booster beating an ACC team."

The day turned out a little differently for the No. 14 UNC men's team (5-3, 1-1), which was missing Michael Chenier, one of its best freestylers, due to a neck injury.

The Tar Heels beat unranked Rutgers 196-103, but lost a back-and-forth battle to No. 25 Florida State 158-142.

"First of all, I guess it's a disappointment, and nobody likes to (lose)," said senior tri-captain Sean Quinn. "We're all pretty tired, but I don't want to use that for an excuse.

"We came off a really good training trip, so I'm confident that the team is not in bad shape. We shouldn't determine anything negative from this meet just because we lost."

There were some positives for UNC, as the Tar Heels won five of the 16 events.

Quinn won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:02.40.

Junior Yuri Suguiyama took the 200 free in 1:40.16, just minutes after placing fourth in the 1,000-yard free. But Suguiyama didn't stop there; he also won the 500 free in 4:32.11.

But it wasn't just the Tar Heel veterans that did well individually, UNC's younger swimmers came through as well.

Freshman Josh Glasco won the 200 butterfly in 1:50.55 and sophomore John Hartmann won the 200 backstroke in 1:51.89.

For the men, blaming the loss on their time off might seem tempting, but UNC coach Frank Comfort said that wasn't the answer.

"Every team in the country's in the same boat, we're all equal," Comfort said. "It's a little bit different getting back into the swing of things, I'll bet you hear, but it's the same for everybody.

"So if the playing field is level, what's the problem? You respond, you don't respond."

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