The 2017 home campaign did not get off to a good start for the North Carolina swimming and diving teams, as the Tar Heels fell in both dual meets to Virginia over the weekend.
The Tar Heel men (1-4, 0-2 ACC) won six of their 16 events on Saturday in the 170-130 loss No. 13 Virginia men's team (5-1, 4-0 ACC) and tied in the 400-meter relay, while the UNC women (1-4, 0-2 ACC) won five of their 16 events in the 173.5-121.5 loss to the No. 5 Virginia women's team (6-0, 4-0 ACC).
Senior Jorden Merrilees excelled for the men’s side, winning the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle before anchoring his relay team to a tie.
“(The relay) really didn’t come down to me, to be honest.” Merrilees said. “Philip (Perdue) had a really good leg at number two and so did Lucas (Popp) at number three and I just watched them and executed a few extra skills.”
Juniors Craig Emslie and Michael McBryan captured the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, respectively. Senior Jack Nyquist won the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events, and junior Elissa Dawson won both events on the women's side to complete a sweep for UNC.
Senior Sarah Hitchens won a nail biter in the 50-yard freestyle, capturing a victory by .01 seconds. She was joined by fellow senior Hellen Moffitt, who won two events — the 200-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly.
“It was pretty exciting," Moffitt said. "I was glad I won those two events. (I) wish I hadn’t gotten disqualified in the 100-backstroke, because then I would have gotten three and we really could have used those points. But I was really happy with my swims in the 100-fly and 200-back, and I think anything I can do to help out the team is good.”
Moffitt said her team's resilience is a source of optimism going forward.
“A lot of our girls were sick," she said. "We were missing two of our highest scorers today. Having them back is going to help a lot and people have been recovering from illness and having them back and getting stronger this upcoming week is going to help us a lot. I was proud of our team for not getting down. They kept hitting us and we kept getting back up. I think that is going to help us in the future, next week and at ACCs.”
