Swimming: Junior friends lead team

Looking at the finishes for Saturday’s swim meet against Virginia Tech and South Carolina, you’d swear North Carolina distance swimmers Joe Kinderwater and Chip Peterson just couldn’t be friends.

Alternating between first and second in the 1,000-yard and 500-yard freestyle, Kinderwater took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:09.23, ahead of Peterson, who clocked in at 9:17.18.

The two then battled it out for the 500-yard freestyle, with Peterson beating Kinderwater to the wall by a narrow margin of .93 seconds.

But friendship comes naturally to the long distance standouts, who see their extremely competitive but encouraging relationship as a significant contributing factor to their success.

The two even have an odd tradition of singing ’90s songs during practices.

The juniors’ experiences beyond those on North Carolina’s men’s swimming team, competing on the national and international circuit in both pool and open-water meets, only add to their bond.

“We’re really close, and we joke around a lot, but we’re both really competitive people, so we always duel during practice and whatnot,” Kinderwater said. “We always fight for who’s number one, and it’s awesome. I love racing against him.”

Kinderwater was recently named to the 2009-10 national teams on the open water and the traditional pool teams. He thanks Peterson for a good chunk of that success.

“Basically, when I decided to come to UNC, that’s when I decided to start doing open water, because, I mean, he’s a world champion so I thought, ‘Hey, why not give it a try?’” Kinderwater said. “It really paid off in the end, and we’re both really successful in it.”

Both have placed highly in numerous meets locally and across the world; Peterson took first in the 1,500-meter freestyle in the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil.

The next year, he barely missed qualifying for a spot at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the open water event.

Kinderwater made an appearance at the Olympic Trials in the same year in the 1,500-meter freestyle, finishing eighth in the event with a new career best time.

But their experiences on the USA Swimming National Open Water team in Spain in 2008 rank just as highly on their list of memories.

“That’s when we got really close,” Peterson said.

“That was after his freshman year, because he came in as a freshman and I was redshirting that year, so I was always cheering for him. Then that summer we actually went on that trip, and we really bonded after that. We roomed together in Spain, and it was awesome.”

For now, Kinderwater and Peterson are keeping their focus on battling for success in the 500-yard, 1,000-yard and 1,650-yard freestyles this season, and between the two of them, giving UNC the premier distance swimming  corps in the ACC.

“We’re like best friends, so it’s friendly competition,” Peterson said. “Well, maybe not in the pool, but definitely outside. No hard feelings.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.