Swimming & Diving: Seniors go out with win vs. Duke

A standing-room-only crowd packed Koury Natatorium on Friday composed of those unlucky enough to be standing in the back craning their necks to see the nine seniors standing poolside below.

With families and friends by their sides all nine graduating swimmers and divers were honored in a pre-meet ceremony and watched a video tribute to their successes in the past four years.

The live swimming that followed wasn't too shabby either.

Three seniors — Whitney Sprague Yi-Khy Saw and Kimmy Davis — all managed individual wins and helped lead the Tar Heels to wins against Duke 182-101 for the men and 169-123 for the women.

In their last home dual meets of their careers the seniors went out in style — due to the hard work of the underclassmen. The teams set 59 season bests and 24 career bests combined.

One of those career bests came from Davis whose time of 56.01 also earned her a win in the 100- meter backstroke.

Davis also kicked off the scoring for the Tar Heels participating in a win in the women's 200- meter relay in the first event of the night.

The men's relay that followed further cemented the Tar Heels' advantage with UNC's first 1-2-3 finish of the evening.

Sprague opened her evening strong with a second-place finish in the 1000-meter freestyle that came less than one second off her season best.

She followed that performance with a win in the 500-meter beating her closest competitor by almost half a second.

Senior Yi-Khy Saw took home a win in his final home meet in the 200-meter butterfly another race in which the Tar Heels finished in the top three spots.

UNC women won 14 of their 16 total events and the men won 15 of 16 after sweeping the diving events.

The win also earned North Carolina two points in the Carlyle Cup which pits UNC and Duke athletes against one another in a yearlong competition. UNC now leads 8.5-2.5 this year.

The Tar Heels next face up against N.C. State in Raleigh on Tuesday with the ACC Championships coming up Feb. 18.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.