Tar Heels Sweep Nittany Lions & Midshipmen

Saturday, January 13

Chapel Hill, N.C.

11:00 a.m.

North Carolina

Penn State

Bryanna Cameron took home wins in the 200 fly and 400 IM versus Navy and Penn State.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

January 13, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Complete Results

Men improve to 3-3, women to 4-2

By: Dave Lohse

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina men's and women's swimming and diving teams returned to action for the first time since the holiday break, sweeping Penn State and Navy at the Maurice J. Koury Natatorium.

The Tar Heel men beat Navy 165.5-129.5 and topped the Nittany Lions 190-105. Navy came out on top of the Nittany Lions in the men's competition 189-111.

On the women's side, UNC swept Navy 215-80 and Penn State 200-91. The Nittany Lions prevailed over the Navy women 181-118.

UNC's men evened their record at 3-3 heading into next Saturday's meet at Virginia. The Tar Heel women are now 4-2 heading to Charlottesville next Saturday.

TOP PERFORMERS-MEN
*UNC's men had the top time in the field in all but four events.
*Carolina had three individuals – Alvin Jiang, Valdas Abaliksta and J.T. Casey each win two individual events and swim on both winning relays
•Jiang won the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly, Abaliksta secured the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke, Casey touched first in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle
•Other individual winners for Carolina were Tom Bilden in the 200 fly, Chris Thames in the 200 back, Henry Campbell in the 500 free and Sean Burston in 3-meter diving
TOP PERFORMERS-WOMEN
*The Tar Heel women had the top placing in 15 of the meet's 16 events
•Freshman Caroline Hauder swam on both winning relays and she was first in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard backstroke
•Senior Caroline Baldwin led off the victorious 200-yard medley relay and she earned top honors in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle
•Senior Elissa Dawson swept the boards for the Tar Heels while Bryanna Cameron took first in the 200 fly and 400 IM
•Several Tar Heels won single events – Robyn Dryer in the 1000 free, Zhada Fields in the 200 free, Maddie Smith in the 50 free, Allie Reiter in the 200 breast, Emma Cole in the 100 fly

FROM COACH DeSELM
Opening Statement:
"It is always great to race at home. We have had a traditional meet this weekend with Navy, home and away every other year. Penn State joined us this time which made for more competition. Obviously, we're pleased with two wins for each team. We haven't competed since early December so this weekend is our first chance to get back at that and I was pleased overall with, certainly, the effort and a lot of the outcomes. Right now, we are not too worried about times but a week from now we go to Virginia and we need to worry about times. They're very good. It's always a hotly contested contest. Our rivalry time is coming. Virginia, State, Duke all in the next two weeks. We got a lot of information today and we will evaluate it. Each person on the team will look at how they performed and see what they can do to improve and hopefully do so on a daily basis in training. It is really a place in time now for us to sharpen everything. The training that we needed to do is either done or not done. It's kind of too late to repair that one. We can certainly get sharper and rest and be fast at the end of the year."

On the first performance after break:
"They're competitors for one. They love to compete. Training is a necessity but they love to race and they love to compete so I am sure after a long break they were very eager to race and we don't have that many home meets left so it was pretty special to be here in our own pool. We haven't done a ton of winning in the last year in terms of dual meets so I know they wanted to get two wins. That is perfectly fine motivation for me."

On confidence level:
"I am very confident that we are going to swim well and dive well. I do believe that each person has things they can work on and it is our job to communicate with them what those things are and it's their job to work on them hard in practice because there is very little time to make big changes or even permanent changes but they can be made. For us to be great as a team, we need each person to find something they can do better and make it stick.

MEN'S TEAM SCORES
North Carolina 165.5, Navy 129.5
North Carolina 190, Penn State 105
Navy 189, Penn State 111
TOP CAROLINA FINISHERS IN EACH EVENT--MEN
200-Yard Medley Relay: 1:29.16 – UNC – 1^st Place – Alvin Jiang 22.68, Valdas Abaliksta 24.63, Nick Loomis 21.92, J.T. Casey 19.93
1000-Yard Freestyle: Nick Palmer (UNC) – 2^nd Place – 9:26.77
200-Yard Freestyle: Dimitrios Dimitriou (UNC) – 2^nd Place – 1:39.60
100-Yard Backstroke: Alvin Jiang (UNC) – 1^st Place – 48.26
100-Yard Breaststroke: Valdas Abaliksta (UNC) – 1^st Place – 54.54
200-Yard Butterfly: Tom Bilden (UNC) – 1^st Place – 1:50.94
50-Yard Freestyle: J.T. Casey (UNC) – 1^st Place – 20.35
One-Meter Diving: Sean Burston (UNC) – 4^th Place – 304.65
100-Yard Freestyle: J.T. Casey (UNC) – 1^st Place – 45.24
200-Yard Backstroke: Chris Thames (UNC) – 1^st Place – 1:47.56
200-Yard Breaststroke: Valdas Abaliksta (UNC) – 1^st Place – 2:00.73
500-Yard Freestyle: Henry Campbell (UNC) – 1^st Place – 4:30.43
100-Yard Butterfly: Alvin Jiang (UNC) – 1^st Place – 48.57
Three-Meter Diving: Sean Burston (UNC) – 1^st Place – 341.30
400-Yard Individual Medley: Brendan Feehery (UNC) – 3^rd Place – 4:02.01
400-Yard Freestyle Relay: 3:00.50 – 1^st Place – UNC – Jack Messenger, Valdas Abaliksta, Alvin Jiang, J.T. Casey
Records: North Carolina 3-3; Navy 9-2; Penn State 1-7

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES
North Carolina 215, Navy 80
North Carolina 200, Penn State 91
Penn State 181, Navy 118
TOP CAROLINA FINISHERS IN EACH EVENT—WOMEN
200-Yard Medley Relay: 1:40.41 – UNC – 1^st Place – Caroline Baldwin 24.78, Caroline Hauder 28.30, Emma Cole 24.88, Maddie Smith 22.45
1000-Yard Freestyle: Robyn Dryer (UNC) – 1^st Place – 10:00.50
200-Yard Freestyle: Zhada Fields (UNC) – 1^st Place – 1:49.70
100-Yard Backstroke: Caroline Baldwin (UNC) – 1^st Place – 53.89
100-Yard Breaststroke: Caroline Hauder (UNC) – 1^st Place -1:01.77
200-Yard Butterfly: Bryanna Cameron (UNC) – 1^st Place – 1:59.69
50-Yard Freestyle: Maddie Smith (UNC) – 1^st Place – 22.93
One-Meter Diving: Elissa Dawson (UNC) – 1^st Place – 311.95
100-Yard Freestyle: Caroline Baldwin (UNC) – 1^st Place – 49.87
200-Yard Backstroke: Caroline Hauder (UNC) – 1^st Place – 1:58.25
200-Yard Breaststroke: Allie Reiter (UNC) – 1^st Place – 2:18.23
500-Yard Freestyle: Robyn Dryer (UNC) – 2^nd Place – 4:55.15
100-Yard Butterfly: Emma Cole (UNC) – 1^st Place – 55.65
Three-Meter Diving: Elissa Dawson (UNC) – 1^st Place – 342.30
400-Yard Individual Medley: Bryanna Cameron (UNC) – 1^st Place – 4:20.46
400-Yard Freestyle Relay: 3:25.21 – UNC – 1^st Place – Zhada Fields, Caroline Hauder, Katie Ford, Brooke Bauer
Records: North Carolina 4-2; Navy 8-2; Penn State 1-7