University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
ACC Women's Finals
Tar Heels Place Second At ACC Championships
February 19, 2011 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 19, 2011
ATLANTA, GA. - Junior Layne Brodie and sophomore Carly Smith each won their second individual championships and the North Carolina women's swimming and diving team scored its most points at the ACC Championships in four years while finishing second in this year's meet at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center.
Carolina fell 42 points short of claiming its first ACC title since 2007 but its 734 points were the most since UNC won the title with 737 points that season. It was the tightest race in the ACC Championships since 2006 when Florida State won its first ever title by a 34.5-point margin over Virginia.
Virginia's winning total was 776 while Carolina was second with 734 in what evolved as a two-school race. Florida State was third with 417, Maryland fourth with 397, Virginia Tech fifth with 358, Miami sixth with 349, Duke seventh with 262.5, NC State eighth with 159.5, Georgia Tech ninth with 152, Clemson 10th with 151 and Boston College 11th with 60.
"It was a hard fought championship. It's still bittersweet to get that close to taking down a three-year reigning champion and not quite achieve the goal but I'm very proud of our team and our staff and this will make us hungrier for next year. Congratulations to Virginia on a last-day come-from-behind victory and a great meet overall. They showed they had enough stuff to win another title," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm.
"I'm very proud of our team. We had great leadership this year in our captains with Katura Harvey, Laura Moriarty and Jenna Moore and in senior class with Rebecca Kane and Ashley Miller. We had a great weekend overall. We came up short but accomplished some very positive things."
Senior Katura Harvey of Rockville, Md., completed her ACC swimming career in style by claiming her third Top 5 finish of the Championships and making her second podium appearance of the meet. She placed third in the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 16:11.25, an NCAA "B" qualifying time. Duke senior Ashley Twichell won the championship in the event with a time of 15:54.15, nearly 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Kat Bachrouche of Virginia.
"Katura Harvey is a tough competitor. She swam a very good race. It was one of her best miles ever," said DeSelm. "It was a good race and I'm very proud and her. She's been very consistent in that event in being among the best in the ACC for four years."
The Tar Heels had two other top eight finishers in the event. Freshman Emily Kelly placed seventh in a time of 16:27.85 and senior Ashley Miller copped eighth place with a time of 16:29.43.
UNC sophomore Carly Smith continued her spectacular swimming at the ACC Championships as she won the title in the 200-yard backstroke to add to her crown in the 100-yard backstroke and as a member of both conference champion medley relay teams. Smith achieved an NCAA "A" qualifying time in winning the title at 1:53.08. It was also her second individual school record of the meet as she bettered the mark she set a year ago by .06 of a second. It was Carolina's ninth school record set during the Championships.
"Carly Smith is developing magnificently as a both a competitor and an athlete. She's becoming a national level backstroke and butterfly swimmer," DeSelm said. "She's starting to show the level of competitiveness and desire of a champion swimmer. She almost got the conference record tonight and that is a very fast time."
Sophomore Rebecca Brooks took fifth place in the event at 1:56.23. In the preliminaries she had established a personal best time of 1:55.70, breaking her old standard of 1:56.56. Junior Candace Cooper placed 11th in 1:57.52. Cooper also set a personal best in the prelims at 1:57.44 (her old mark had been 1:57.91) and moved into fourth place in school history in the event.
Virginia moved past the Tar Heels in the team standings in the 100-yard freestyle by putting four swimmers in the championship final, led by champion Lauren Perdue at 47.88, a new ACC record. Senior Rebecca Kane of Toms River, N.J., earned her second Top 4 finish of the meet as she claimed fourth in a time of 49.26. UNC sophomore Stephanie Eisenring won the consolation heat in a time of 49.80 seconds while eclipsing her previous career best of 49.97. Another Tar Heel sophomore was 13th as Katie Nolan was clocked in 50.34 seconds. Eisenring's time knocked Melissa Douse off the UNC career top times list and moved her into 10th place in the event.
"Rebecca has carried the mantle for us for four years in the sprint events. She's going to be really missed. I'm very proud of Rebecca and the role she's played," said DeSelm.
UNC returned to the lead after the 200-yard breaststroke as two Tar Heel stalwarts achieved podium status. Junior Layne Brodie took the championship in 2:10.56, less than four-tenths of a second ahead of fellow junior Laura Moriarty who finished in 2:10.91. It was Brodie's second championship of the meet to go along with her title in the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday night and it was the third Top 3 finish of the meet for Moriarty. The title gave UNC five individual titles overall to go along with two relay championships. The last time Carolina won as many as five individual titles in an ACC Championship was 2002 when it won six individual event crowns.
"Layne and Laura have been battling on our own team supremacy and they have a great friendly rivalry. Both of them have fought back from adversity over the past year," said DeSelm. "They ended up 1-2 in the 200 and they provided a spark in the middle of the meet to put points on the board for us as we battled Virginia for first place. We had four breaststrokers score in the event and five in the 100 as well. Layne won her second championship and Laura was on the podium three times as well. I appreciate what they have done in the face of battling injuries."
Freshman Katie Rechsteiner swam in her second championship final of the meet and placed eighth in 2:15.14. Rechsteiner had swum a career best 2:14.03 in the prelims, taking more than two seconds (2:16.58) off her previous career best. Junior Katie Keel also clocked a career best by nearly two seconds as she finished 11th in 2:15.12. She had gone 2:14.93 in the prelims to better her previous best mark of 2:16.84. Rechsteiner now ranks sixth and Keel eighth in Tar Heel history in the 200 breast.
Virginia outscored the Tar Heels 67-6 in the 200-yard butterfly to take the lead in the Championships for good. The Cavaliers finished 1-2-3. UNC's only entry in the event was freshman Stephanie Peacock and she finished 11th in 2:00.75.
The Carolina divers turned in a solid performance in women's platform diving as junior Jenna Moore placed seventh with 253.90 points while junior Kristin Arnold was 13th with 218.80 points. Those were career high scores for both divers as Moore's previous best was 214.45 and Arnold's was 203.20. Moore's score was just shy of Erica Schiffler's school record score of 260.85 in the event and Arnold's score moved her into third place all-time at Carolina.
UNC's 400-yard freestyle relay placed third with a time of 3:19.11. The relay included sophomore Stephanie Eisenring (50.22), junior Layne Brodie (50.13), sophomore Katie Nolan (50.02) and senior Rebecca Kane (48.74).
Despite finishing in second place behind Virginia for the fourth straight year, the Tar Heels performed significantly better at this year's meet with a margin of just 42 points. Each of the previous three years Virginia's margin against second-place Carolina was over 200 points, including a 228-point spread in 2008, a 245.5-point margin in 2009 and a 235-point deficit in 2010.
Players Mentioned
