The North Carolina swimming and diving teams headed to Durham on Saturday for their last dual meet in the regular season. Both teams kept it close, but ultimately fell to Duke on their senior night. The No. 21 women lost to Duke, 151-149, and the men fell 157.5-142.5.
What happened?
The Tar Heel women (4-5, 1-3 ACC) won first place in eight of their 16 events: 1-meter diving, 3-meter diving, 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke, and 400-yard freestyle relay.
The women struggled with the 200-yard backstroke as well as the 100-yard butterfly, where Duke took first and second places in both races.
The 400-yard freestyle relay was the deciding event in the nail-biting loss. Although UNC won first place in the relay, Duke won second place to secure the six points needed to edge out the Tar Heels at the very end.
The UNC men (3-6, 1-3 ACC) also won first place in eight of the 16 events: 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard IM, and 500-yard freestyle.
The Tar Heel men struggled with the 3-meter diving, earning the last three places behind four competitors for Duke. They also struggled with both the 200- and 1000-yard freestyles, where Duke snagged both first and second places in both races.
Who stood out?
Junior Maria Lohman won first place in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events, contributing 18 points for her team. First-year Caroline Hauder, who was named the ACC Women's Swimmer of the week just two weeks ago, won the 200-yard breaststroke and placed second in the 100-yard backstroke by less than a second. Senior and reliable star Caroline Baldwin also won first place in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles.
