University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
NCAA Men's Championships Finals
Five Tar Heels Earn All-America Honors On First Day
March 26, 2010 | Swimming & Diving
March 26, 2010
COLUMBUS, OHIO - The Tar Heel men's swimming and diving team stands in 25th place after the opening day of the 2010 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Five Tar Heel swimmers earned honorable mention All-America honors on the first day of the meet as UNC posted a pair of 14th place finishes.
Altogether, UNC set or tied four school records on the first day of competition. The Tar Heels scored nine team points and stand in 25th place overall in the meet.
Redshirt junior Chip Peterson placed 14th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:18.53, only 35 one-hundredths of a second off the school record time he posted last year. This is the third year in which Peterson has been named an All-America. He was a first-team All-America in 2007 and also earned honorable mention last year.
Carolina's 400-yard medley relay also finished in 14th place with a time of 3:11.41. The evening's swim tied the school record the Tar Heels had set in the preliminaries at 3:11.41. The evening's relay consisted of Tommy Wyher (46.56), Tyler Harris (54.59), Tom Luchsinger (47.54) and Steve Cebertowicz (42.72).
"We're ahead of where we were last year and very pleased to see some school records set or tied at NCAA Championships, the peak of our season. I want to congratulate our five All-Americas and we hope to get more the next two days," said Tar Heel head coach Rich DeSelm.
Tommy Wyher set an ACC record in the 100-yard backstroke in the prelims, leading off the 400 medley relay in 45.93. Steve Cebertowicz tied the school record in prelims in the 50 free at 20.06. That time has now been achieved four times in school history, twice by Cebertowicz. UNC's 400 medley relay team twice swam 3:11.41 on Friday, setting a school record in the afternoon and then tying the same record at night.
UNC had a relay earn a Top 16 finish at NCAAs for the first time since 1997. That year, UNC scored in the 200 and 400 medley relays and the 400 and 800 free relays. UNC has two relays left at this meet as they were formally invited in both the 400 free and 800 free relays and are seeded 13th or better in both relays.
Players Mentioned
