They barely squeaked it out.
On Saturday, the No. 18 North Carolina men’s swimming and diving team held strong to beat out Virginia Tech by just 5.5 points for third place in the 2016 ACC Championships. UNC finished with 897.5 points, behind No. 7 N.C. State (1402) and No. 14 Louisville (1067.5).
“It was great to see our guys work so hard to reach our goal in the midst of the competition,” Coach Rich DeSelm said. “We had a lot of guys dig really deep, perform extremely well in pressure situations and really do it for one another.”
The Tar Heels opened up day one of the four-day meet in second place, thanks to the veteran 200-yard medley relay team. The senior unit — which has swam together for four years — produced a third-place performance that set a new school record and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
“It’s a little scary to think that next year (the senior class) won't be on the team,” DeSelm said. “Their leadership at practice, in the classroom, in the community and certainly in competition has been immeasurable.”
On Thursday night, the Tar Heels posted five top-5 finishes but still fell to fourth place.
Sophomore Henry Campbell and senior Sam Lewis earned third in the 500-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle, respectively. Senior Ben Colley finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley, putting him in second place on the all-time UNC record list. Junior Jack Nyquist’s second-place finish in the three-meter diving from a week ago was factored into the night's results.
But once again, the Tar Heels relied on senior leadership to move back up to third place on Friday.
Lewis claimed UNC’s sole ACC title in the meet, finishing with a time of 45.77 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly.
