The UNC swimming and diving teams hosted the South Carolina Gamecocks at Koury Natatorium and came away with their first dual win of the spring season. The diving teams continued their successful streaks with both men's and women's first and second-place finishes in all categories.
What happened?
Both UNC’s men and women’s teams started strong, each winning first place in their respective 400-yard medleys. The women’s relay won with a time of 3:35.03, and the men’s with a time of 3:09.85. This was all part of head coach Mark Gangloff’s plan for the meet.
“I knew that if we started off with our relays performing at a really high level and opening up with a couple of victories that we would match up really well with South Carolina,” Gangloff said. “We started with a bunch of momentum and a couple of great wins and just kept that rolling.”
From then on, it was a constant stream of wins for the Tar Heel swimmers, only giving up one first-place finish to the Gamecocks in the women’s 100-yard breast event. The only other South Carolina victories came from the 200-yard free relays, in which UNC only competed as exhibition teams.
Who stood out?
Amongst almost exclusively first-place Tar Heel victories, several swimmers and divers stood out amongst the rest.
Junior Grace Countie won two individual events, the women’s 100-yard backstroke as well as the women’s 200-yard backstroke. Countie also contributed to the women’s 400-yard medley relay victory. Countie doesn’t typically compete in the 200-yard backstroke, but her coaches felt she was ready for the challenge.
“Grace Countie had some really great swims in the backstroke events,” Gangloff said. “We put her in there today and she did a nice job stepping up.”
