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The Daily Tar Heel

Men split, women sweep in first swimming and diving meet

The starting gun sounded and North Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams sped off to the races last Friday with their first meet of the season.

At the Virginia Tech Annual Margaret Soulen Gilbert Breast Cancer Awareness Swim/Dive Meet, the UNC men’s team split its events, defeating the Virginia Military Institute while losing to Virginia Tech. The women’s team swept all four of its events against Radford, Liberty, Virginia Tech, and James Madison.

“Its’ a tale of two stories really,” said coach Rich DeSelm. “Our women’s team and men’s team had two different outcomes, so it’s difficult to really talk about both in the same vein, but it’s always great to get started (with the season).”

The women’s team won 12 of the 19 events, while the men won eight of their 19. Both senior Stephanie Peacock and sophomore Emma Nunn won two events, with Peacock taking first in both the 1000 and 500-yard freestyle, as well as anchoring both the winning 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays. Nunn took first in the 200-yard fly and 400-yard individual medley.

Sophomore Ally Hardesty turned in a stellar performance as well. She finished with a career best time of 1:48.91 in the 200-yard freestyle and won the 100-yard freestyle.

“I hope to be even faster this weekend in Texas,” Hardesty said. “The atmosphere in Texas is really good and people are always trying to go faster.”

Other winners for the women’s side include sophomore Hannah Lincoln (50-yard freestyle), junior Danielle Siverling (200-yard freestyle), sophomore Annie Harrison (200-yard backstroke) and senior Cari Blalock (100-yard individual medley). UNC also won three of four relays on the women’s side.

”It’s great to see what some new people can do,” DeSelm said. “It was a good chance for us to go on the road and deal with the challenges that come with traveling and competing.”

While the men’s side kept it close with Virginia Tech, there were a few too many errors to come away with the victory. UNC came away with victories in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard free relay on the men’s side, but the Hokies won 11 events compared to UNC’s eight.

“We need to clean a few things up and not allow opponents back into a race when we gain an upper hand,” DeSelm said.

Another highlight of the match was the performance of freshman Jack Nyquist, who competed in his first ever collegiate event. Nyquist finished second in both the one meter and three meter diving events behind Virginia Tech senior All-American Ryan Hawkins.

“I did what I knew I could do and I did well,” Nyquist said.

Individual winners for UNC included freshman Eugene Tee (1000-yard freestyle), sophomore Logan Heck (50-yard freestyle), sophomore Nic Graesser (50-yard backstroke), sophomore Dominick Glavich (200-yard fly), junior Brian Bollerman (200-yard breaststroke) and sophomore Sam Lewis (50-yard fly).

UNC will compete in dual meets this coming Thursday and Saturday against Texas and TCU.

“We know that we’re going up against a formidable opponent, but we’re excited about it,” DeSelm said.

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