University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Tuesday Preliminaries
Carolina Turns In Solid Morning At ACC Meet
February 14, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
ATLANTA, GA. - The University of North Carolina women's swimming and diving team achieved a slew of career best times in Tuesday morning's preliminaries of the 2017 Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at the McAuley Aquatics Center on the campus of Georgia Tech.
Three Tar Heels qualified for "A" championship finals on Tuesday night, another two will swim in "B" finals and five more have earned spots in "C" scoring finals.
The highlight of the day was the performance of 50-yard freestylers Caroline Baldwin and Sarah Hitchens. Baldwin earned the top seed in the event with a time of 21.78, breaking her own school record of 21.98 she set last November. She booked her ticket to the 2017 NCAA Championships with an autiomatic qualifying time and broke the ACC Championships meet record of 21.85 set by Louisville's Kelsi Worrell on February 18, 2016.
Sarah Hitchens qualified third in the event with a time of 21.99. That makes her the second fastest Tar Heel 50-yard freestyler in history and her time was the third fastest ever by a Tar Heel behind the two clockings by Baldwin. Hitchens' previous best time was 22.39.
Both Brooke Bauer and Sarah Koucheki qualified for the "C" final in career best times. Bauer placed 17th in a time of 22.51 (previous best 22.80) and Koucheki qualified 23rd in 22.83 (previous best 22.88). Katie Ford also had a career best time of 22.88 in placing 31st, eclipsing her previous personal best of 23.13.
UNC senior Macey Arnold qualified sixth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:42.62, moving her into fifth place all-time amongst Tar Heels in the event. She was almost two full seconds under her previous career best of 4:44.44. Caty Hulsey qualified 11th in 4:47.65 and Bryanna Cameron, a freshman, was 12th in 4:47.86. Cameron's previous career best time was 4:48.38. Liliana Casso initially just missed the "C" final, taking 25th in a career best (4:52.50). Her previous best was 4:53.11. She earned a spot in the "C" final when there was a scratch later in the morning.
Senior Emily Pfeiffer took 10th place in the preliminaries in the 200-yard individual medley as she clocked a 1:59.04, well under her previous personal best time of 2:00.64. With her performance Tuesday morning, Pfeiffer is now the fifth fastest Tar Heel ever in the 200 IM. Reni Moshos and Susanna LaRochelle clocked in as the 17th and 19th qualifiers in prelims. Moshos went 2:00.02 and LaRochelle 2:00.10. LaRochelle's previous career best was a time of 2:02.08.
Elissa Dawson and Maria Lohman competed in the preliminaries of the women's one-meter diving competition Tuesday afternoon. Dawson placed sixth with 271.60 points, earning her a spot in the one-meter diving finals on Tuesday night. Lohman placed 12th in the event with a score of 256.55 points.
Players Mentioned
