In their second meet of the season, the North Carolina swimming and diving teams were defeated at Koury Natatorium on Friday afternoon by Georgia. The men were defeated by the No. 14 team 163-137, while the women fell to the No. 12 team by a score of 176-124.
Despite the results, there were plenty of positives for the Tar Heels to take away from their performance against the Bulldogs, one of the top teams in the country.
"Georgia is a perennial program and has been for the last 20, 25 years," head coach Mark Gangloff said. "I think that our team came in today and competed really well against them and represented the University of North Carolina very well."
The Tar Heels dominated in the relays, winning all four events. The team of Grace Countie, Allie Reiter, Sophie Lindner and Emma Cole started the event with a win in the 200 medley, while Jack Messenger, Valdas Abaliksta, Tomas Sungaila and Tucker Burhans of the men's team closed out the meet with a victory in the 400 free relay.
Lindner and Abaliksta also shone in their individual events for North Carolina. Lindner dominated the women's backstroke, finishing with a 53.83 in the 100 and a 1:57.88 in the 200.
"There was just a lot of energy on the pool deck, and it was really awesome to be able to swim for UNC today," Lindner said. "We showed who we are now and our new identity. I think that Georgia wasn't expecting us to do what we just did, so it's going to show the other teams that this is what we're made of and that we're super tough."
Abaliksta also swept the breaststroke for the Tar Heels, earning 54.94 finish in the men's 100 and a 1:59.65 in the 200. Both of his finishes were season-best times.
"We should definitely try and bring the same energy into next week because today was absolutely awesome," Abaliksta said.
UNC was able to earn another first-place finish through Messenger. The junior from Raleigh captured the top spot in the men's 50 free with a time of 20.46.
