The North Carolina swim team left its opponent in the shallow end of the pool this weekend, using its depth to pull away from Louisville in a two-day dual meet.
UNC came away with a sweep in both the men’s and women’s meets. The No. 9 women’s team won 213-140 against the No. 12 Cardinals, while the No. 17 men’s team triumphed 186-161 against the No. 13 Louisville men’s swimmers.
“Louisville is a very fine team,” coach Rich DeSelm said. “They have some of the best sprinters in the country, and they’re really well coached so to get a win for our men is huge.”
After the first half of the meet on Friday, the Tar Heel men held a slim two-point advantage against the Cardinals 83-81. The meet remained tightly contested from the start Saturday, as UNC won the first event — the 200-yard individual medley relay — by only .65 of a second. UNC won four races to Louisville’s five each day.
“It was a competition the whole meet,” sophomore Logan Heck, the anchor on the 200-yard medley relay , said. “We knew we had to come in and win events and outscore them.”
Depth was a critical factor throughout the match for both the men and women, and UNC swept the top three spots in four events. Even when they weren’t able to place first, the Tar Heels still scored through their depth.
“We had a lot of guys just across the board step up,” sophomore Sam Lewis said. “We really beat Louisville with our depth (Saturday) and it showed.”
Top performers for UNC included redshirt sophomore Dominick Glavich and senior Stephanie Peacock. Glavich won three events, including the 200-yard IM and 200 and 100 -yard butterfly, while Peacock won the 500-yard freestyle and turned in a dominant performance in the 1000-yard freestyle. She swam a season best 9:38.51 and lapped all three Louisville swimmers in the process.
“That’s a confidence builder, going 9:38,” DeSelm said. “I’ll take that.”
