University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
NCAA Men's Championships Finals
Tar Heels Move Up To 16th At NCAA Championships
March 24, 2012 | Swimming & Diving
March 24, 2012
FEDERAL WAY, WASH. - Carolina swimmers and divers earned All-America honors in four different events Friday night as the second night of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships wound up at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatics Center.
Led by a ninth place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, North Carolina moved up one spot in the team standings and now stands 16th after the second day of competition with 48.5 points.
Carolina finished the night on a high note as the 800-yard freestyle relay team took a ninth-place finish in the timed final of the event. UNC's final time was 6:25.70. The relay unit consisted of senior Evan Reed (1:37.50), junior Tom Luchsinger (1:35.45), senior Steve Cebertowicz (1:36.80) and sophomore J.T. Stilley (1:35.95).
The Tar Heels finished 15th in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:31.06, earning honorable mention All-America honors for all four swimmers on the relay. Senior Steve Cebertowicz led off with a 22.56 split in the backstroke, senior Brock Park went 26.28 in the breaststroke, sophomore J.T. Stilley split 22.45 on the butterfly leg and sophomore Kyle Ficker went 19.77 on the freestyle leg.
"Our 200 Medley Relay was fortunate to score. We took advantage of the opportunity to swim this event and ended up 15th," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm.
For the second straight year, junior Tom Luchsinger earned All-America honors in the 400-yard individual medley as he finished 14th in a season best time of 3:46.03, dropping more than a second off his time of 3:47.24 in the preliminaries.
"Tom Luchsinger was able to return at night to swim the 400 IM in the consolation heat. He swam a different race, taking the backstroke leg a bit easier, but ended up improving nicely from his preliminary time and, for the second year in a row, scored points for UNC in this event," said DeSelm.
In three-meter diving, senior David MacDonald became only the second North Carolina diver in the last 55 years and the first since Ryan Funderburk in 2008 to earn All-America honors. MacDonald scored 405.55 points on the three-meter board to finish 14th. He qualified in 10th place with 378.35 points but scored 27 more points in the evening session.
"In the three-meter diving, senior David MacDonald had a tremendous qualifying session to finish 10th going into the consolation round," said DeSelm. "David ultimately finished 14th and scoring as a senior in his first NCAA Championships. David's performances in Seattle thus far are a testament to his resilience and Kevin Lawrence's coaching. We are very happy for them both, as this is their last meet representing UNC."
In the 200-yard freestyle, senior Evan Reed finished 32nd in 1:36.95 and sophomore J.T. Stilley was 41st in a time of 1:37.66. Both times were just off the season bet times of those individuals.
"In the final event of the night, our 800 Free Relay was seeded 12th coming into the meet and we ended up 9th. Our goal was a top-8 finish and we were capable of that. There were some excellent teams in the field and I am proud of our team for their efforts. We currently hold 16th place and will need to compete well to maintain or improve upon that position," concluded DeSelm.
Players Mentioned
