University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Friday Finals
Tar Heel Women Win Three Events At Dowd Invitational
February 4, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
DURHAM, N.C. - The first day of the 2017 Janis Hape Dowd Carolina College Nike Invitational concluded Friday night at Duke University's Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion with three individual victories from Tar Heel women's swimmers.
Freshman Erica Wirth won the 500-yard freestyle, junior Madison Boswell captured the 200-yard individual medley and sophomore Kate Boyer won the 50-yard freestyle on the opening night of competition.
The meet began Friday morning with a preliminary session at UNC's Maurice J. Koury Natatorium before the University of North Carolina was officially closed at 1 p.m. because of an emerging and continuing water emergency in Orange County, North Carolina.
That moved the evening session to Duke's Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion. Duke had orginally been scheduled to host preliminary and finals sessions on Saturday. Because of the uncertainty of when the water emergency measures in Chapel Hill will be lifted, the Sunday preliminary and finals sessions, originally scheduled for UNC, will now be held at Duke. All other athletic event scheduled for UNC Friday, Saturday and Sunday have moved off campus as well. Please check GoHeels.com for updates.
On Friday, Tar Heel freshman Erica Wirth won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:53.63. She was less than a half second off her career best time in the event of 4:53.18 with her winning time on Friday.
In the men's 500-yard freestyle, UNC senior Josh Beals won the "B" final with a time of 4:26.33, which at the time set a Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion pool record in the event. Beals' record was short-lived, however, as in the next heat, Florida's Grady Heath claimed the "A" final in a time of 4:22.47.
In the women's 200-yard individual medley, Tar Heel junior Madison Boswell claimed first place with a time of 2:02.78. That was a career best time for Boswell, whose previous personal best was 2:03.69.
In the men's 200-yard individual medley, NC State's Andreas Vazaios emerged as the victor in a time of 1:44.43. His preliminary time in the event was 1:43.97, which broke the previous Janis Hape Dowd Carolina College Nike Invitational record in the event which was 1:45.97 set by the University of Tennessee's Tristan Slater in 2014.
Carolina swimmers went 1-2 Friday night in the women's 50-yard freestyle with Kate Boyer taking first place in 23.19 and Katie McKay garnering runner-up honors in 23.26. McKay's time of 23.12 in the preliminaries on Friday was her career best (previous 23.18).
Saturday's preliminaries and finals will be held at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, at Duke's Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion. Real time results for Saturday can be found at this link.
Players Mentioned
