UVA sinks UNC at ?rst dual meet of the season

Though the home pools of North Carolina and Virginia are of comparable depth, their rosters are not. That proved to be the difference Saturday.

Both the North Carolina men and women’s swimming and diving teams lost to Virginia, reigning ACC Champions, in UNC’s first ACC dual meet of the season.

“It takes a talented, deep team to beat a team like UVA,” coach Rich DeSelm said. “Because that’s exactly what they are — talented and deep.”

In the end, DeSelm said, UNC’s few good performances couldn’t combat Virginia’s wealth of talent.

On the men’s swimming side, No. 15 Virginia won 194-106, maintaining the lead throughout the meet.

Though the women lost 169-131, they were in contention until the end, when Virginia took first place in the last four events.

DeSelm said placing better in earlier races could have prevented the last-minute Cavalier victory.

“The last four events seem to glitter out at people,” DeSelm said in a telephone interview. “But we had places along the way where we could have done a better job picking off a second, third or fourth, even fifth place to tighten the score …to make it easier for ourselves at the end.”

Junior Stephanie Peacock was one of the few bright spots for UNC on the weekend, turning in a number of impressive performances.

Peacock raced competitively for a total of 1,600 yards in Saturday’s meet against the Virginia Cavaliers.

She opened with the 1000-yard freestyle, setting a pool record as well as a new personal best in a dual meet.

Minutes later she swam the 500-yard freestyle and secured another first place finish for the Tar Heels. She concluded the meet with a leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“The energy that we had built up for the meet really contributed,” she said. “I just wanted more than anything to win so I wanted to do whatever I could to help.”

Peacock said she and her teammates are better prepared to face Virginia again in the ACC Championships.

“(The ACC meet) is going to be just as intense, and we want to beat them there,” Peacock said. “Basically, this is just like a practice run, especially for the freshmen.”

Though the men’s meet was not as close, several freshmen turned in noteworthy performances. Three of the four Tar Heel individual winners were freshmen — Sean Sullivan, Logan Heck and Ben Colley each won an event in their first competition against the Cavaliers.

Sullivan, a Virginia native, won the 50-yard freestyle.

Sullivan says he saw the meet as an opportunity to prove himself.

“(Virginia) didn’t recruit me all that much,” he said. “Yet I was capable of going out there and beating all of their sprinters.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.