University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
ACC Women's Swimming Championships
Tar Heels Have Solid First Day At ACC Championships
February 15, 2012 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 15, 2012
CHRISTIANSBURG, VA. - The University of North Carolina women's swimming and diving team turned in a pair of solid relay performances on the opening day of the 2012 ACC Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center. UNC came within a half second of breaking the school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay and ranks second in the team standings after day one.
Carolina started off the night with a runner-up finish in the 200-yard medley relay. UNC placed second in an NCAA "B" qualifying time of 1:39.64. Virginia won the championship in the event and Miami finished third. The UNC relay dropped nearly two seconds off its seed time as senior Candace Cooper led off the relay in 25.03 on the backstroke leg, senior Laura Moriarty went 28.14 on the breaststroke leg, junior Katie Nolan clocked a 23.99 on the butterfly leg and freshman Nikki Barczak finished with a 22.48 freestyle split.
"We felt our 200 medley relay was terrific," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. "Going into the meet it looked like we could be anywhere from first to fifth. We had some of lifetime best splits out of Candace Cooper, Laura Moriarty and Katie Nolan.
"We lost two All-America swimmers off last year's ACC champion relay that went 1:37. That was a special relay. Getting second place with a different corps of swimmers was a spark to our team heading into the second event."
The Tar Heels' 800-yard freestyle relay took exactly 12 seconds off its seed time in the event, finishing second in 7:06.91. That was just off the school record of 7:06.32 set last year. Sophomore Stephanie Peacock led off the relay in 1:45.44, freshman Danielle Siverling went 1:45.54, sophomore Cari Blalock went 1:47.50 and junior Stephanie Eisenring anchored in 1:48.43.
"The 800-yard freestyle relay was extremely exciting. We had six viable candidates who we could put on that relay," said DeSelm. "We were on track to break a school record and just ran out of gas at the end. We got a great leadoff leg by Stephanie Peacock and then lifetime best splits out of Danielle Siverling and Cari Blalock. I know on the anchor leg, Stephanie Eisenring did everything she coulddo to win going up against an All-America from Virginia. Hopefully our time will make NCAAs. Overall, I thought it was a great night for us."
Virginia won the championship in the event while NC State made the awards stand with a third-place finish.
Team standings after the first day of the meet has Virginia in first place with 80 points while North Carolina is second with 68 points and NC State third with 56 points. Florida State is fourth with 54 points followed by Maryland with 51, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech with 48, Duke with 47, Miami with 46, Clemson with 38 and Boston College with 24.
Action continues in the 2012 ACC Championships Thursday at 11 a.m. with preliminaries in the 500 free, 200 IM and 50 free.
Players Mentioned
