University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Finals
UNC Women Move Into Top 20 At NCAA Meet
March 22, 2014 | Swimming & Diving
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. - Senior Cari Blalock and junior Danielle Siverling earned honorable mention All-America honors in individual events Friday for the North Carolina women's swimming and diving team at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Blalock finished 12th in the 400-yard individual medley and Siverling was 14th in the 200-yard freestyle at the University of Minnesota Aquatics Center.
Those swims and a couple of scoring relay efforts lifted Carolina into the Top 20 of the team standings after the second day of the meet.
"We had a much better day today," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. "We started off with a school record performance in the 200-yard medley relay this morning. We went just a little slower tonight but we had three seniors on that relay and am happy they will get All-America status."
"We've moved up into the Top 20 after the second day and we are very excited for tomorrow's preliminary events where we have some seasoned veterans competing, especially in the 200 fly. In fact, we have entries in all but one individual event and a very fine 400 free relay."
Blalock and Siverling joined senior Stephanie Peacock in earning All-America honors at this meet in individual events. Peacock was 13th in the 500 free on Thursday.
A 10th-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay earned the Tar Heels 14 team points and, in the process, lifted Carolina into the Top 20 of the team standings after day two of the championships. UNC currently stands in 18th place with 30 team points.
"We finished the evening with a 10th place finish in the 800 free relay. We were slower than our school record we set at the conference championships but we are all very proud of the effort that the swimmers showed us tonight. Of particular note in the relay was Stephanie Peacock's anchor leg. It was an outstanding swim in the final event of her collegiate career as she passed multiple teams on the final leg to move us into second place in the heat and earn us 10th place overall," said DeSelm.
UNC's 800-yard freestyle relay took 10th place in the timed final of the event with a time of 7:05.98. The Carolina relay included junior Danielle Siverling (1:45.78), sophomore Ally Hardesty (1:47.13), sophomore Lauren Earp (1:46.95) and senior Stephanie Peacock (1:46.12).
Blalock placed 12th in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:07.51. That was just slightly off her time preliminary time of 4:07.46 when she earned the No. 10 seed in Friday night's consolation final.
Siverling placed 14th in the 200-yard freestyle as she clocked a time of 1:45.06 in the consolation final. She moved up two spots from her 16th place seed after the preliminaries. Siverling had snuck into the evening consolation final by .03 of a second and made the most of the opportunity.
Carolina's 200-yard medley relay also scored points on Friday night as the Tar Heels finished 15th with a time of 1:38.06. The relay included senior Carly Smith (24.63), senior Katie Rechsteiner (28.12), senior Cari Blalock (23.55) and sophomore Hannah Lincoln (21.76). In the preliminaries of the event, UNC set a school record of 1:37.76, which was .11 of a second faster than its time at the ACC Championships.
In Friday's Preliminary Events Tar Heel entries finished as follows:
200-Yard Medley Relay: 15th Place, 1:37.76 (Carly Smith 24.83, Katie Rechsteiner 27.98, Cari Blalock 23.17, Hannah Lincoln 21.78)
400-Yard Individual Medley: Cari Blalock, 10th, 4:07.46; Emma Nunn, 36th, 4:13.79; Annie Harrison, 46th, 4:17.39; Abby Fisher, 50th, 4:21.46
100-Yard Butterfly: Hannah Lincoln, 34th, 53.15; Meredith Hoover, 42nd, 53.57; Sarah Koucheki, 54th, 54.15
200-Yard Freestyle: Danielle Siverling, 16th, 1:45.34; Stephanie Peacock, 42nd, 1:47.80; Lauren Earp, 44th, 1:48.25
100-Yard Breaststroke: Abby Fisher, 49th, 1:03.58
100-Yard Backstroke: Carly Smith, 24th, 52.88; Annie Harrison, 49th, 54.97
Players Mentioned
