UNC Moves Up The Rankings Heading Into Final Day of GT Invite

Friday, November 16

Atlanta, GA

All Day

North Carolina

Georgia Tech Invitational

Photo by: Barron Northrup

November 17, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Friday Finals Results Friday Prelims Results

ATLANTA, Ga. - Both the men's and women's swimming and diving programs for the University of North Carolina saw improvements in team standings following Friday's finals at the Georgia Tech Invitational. With a combined 55 season-best individual times and scores set on day two, the women now rank fifth of 10 with 396.5 points and the men moved up one spot to seventh-place among nine teams with a score of 292.5 points.

Right off the bat, the Tar Heels bolstered their team scores with top-five finishes in both 200 medley relays. Freshman Grace Countie, sophomore Caroline Hauder, freshman Sophie Lindner and junior Brooke Bauer joined forces to take third in the women's 200 medley relay as Bauer's blazing 22.08 free secured the bronze. On the men's side, sophomore Alvin Jiang helped yet another Carolina relay clock a season-best time as sophomore Sterling Smith, senior Nick Loomis and freshman Tucker Burhans swam 1:27.63 for fifth.

Getting into the individual events, Carolina made 31 finals appearances with 11 of those performances scoring major points in the diving and swimming A finals.

Topping her ACC/Big Ten Challenge performance, junior Bryanna Cameron set a personal record in the women's 400 IM for 10th place. Freshman Lilly Higgs made the all-time top-ten charts in the Carolina record books after swimming 1:01.19 in the 100 breaststroke — ninth in school history — to finish seventh as Caroline Hauder, the current school record holder, placed eighth with a season-best 1:01.28.

In the women's 100 back, standout freshmen Grace Countie and Sophie Lindner continued to make a name for themselves in the pool. Countie earned her second top-ten time in Carolina history with a 52.77 prelim before finishing fifth in 53.19 and Lindner's 100 back time of 53.86 tied for sixth. Lindner also completed the women's 100 fly prelims with a personal-best time of 53.92 and ended up finishing 16th with a B final time of 54.38.

Sophomore Valdas Abaliksta and Sterling Smith both contributed to the team score after the underclassmen qualified for the A final. Abaliksta finished fifth with a time of 53.65 and Smith hit the touchpad for a tenth-place time of 54.69. Alvin Jiang made another A final individual appearance, this time in the men's 100 back, and placed fifth with a time of 47.31.

On the boards, senior Maria Lohman, freshman Emily Grund and junior Andrew Owsiany qualified for the women's one-meter and the men's three-meter. Bouncing back from a slow first day, Owsiany claimed a new career-high score of 347.50 points to tie for sixth place overall and Lohman earned a season-high one-meter score of 295.80 points to place third in an incredibly close women's competition. Grund, who previously placed fifth in Thursday's three-meter competition, followed up with a ninth-place one-meter score of 268.90 and gave the Tar Heel women some valuable points.

Additionally, Kate Boyer swam a personal-best 100 breaststroke in the C final, clocking 1:03.63 for 27th, and Bryanna Cameron earned her second career-best time of the day with a 1:50.82 in the 200 free prelims. Mary-O Soule and Emma Cole added to the list of Carolina scorers with their 18th-place times — 4:20.88 in the women's 400 IM for Soule and 54.84 in the women's 100 fly for Cole — and Robyn Dryer earned an 18th-place finish of her own, swimming a season-best 1:49.79 in the women's 200 free. In the men's 200 free, Dimitrios Dimitriou put points on the board for the Heels with his 17th-place time of 1:38.81.

Carolina tacked on some points at the end of the night in the 800 freestyle relays with Caroline Hauder, Sophie Lindner, Grace Countie and Robyn Dryer taking sixth with 7:18.31 on the board and Tomas Sungaila leading off the men's relay with a personal-best 200 free time of 1:37.88. Sungaila, Dimitrios Dimitriou, Daniel Koenigsperger and Luka Tomic earned a seventh-place finish with their time of 6:36.14.

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES: Florida - 854.5, Auburn - 602.5, Alabama - 446.5, Florida State - 418.5, North Carolina - 396.5, South Carolina - 391.5, Virginia Tech - 375, Georgia Tech - 278, Florida Gulf Coast - 208, East Carolina - 127

MEN'S TEAM SCORES: Florida - 838.5, Florida State - 606, Georgia Tech - 479.5, Alabama - 465, Virginia Tech - 408, Auburn - 350.5, North Carolina - 292.5, South Carolina - 284, East Carolina - 240

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow @uncswimdive on Twitter to receive information as results are made available. The meet will be shown live on ACC Network Extra and live results will be available online. A meet recap and results will be posted on GoHeels.com following the completion of competition.

Day 1, Thursday, Nov. 15
Prelims Results
Finals Results
Time Trials Results

Day 2, Friday, Nov. 16
Prelims Results
Finals Results

Watch: Day 3, Saturday, Nov. 17
10 a.m. ET — Prelims
5:30 p.m. ET — Finals

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Day 1, Thursday, Nov. 15 (Complete)
   •   200 Free Relay
   •   500 Free
   •   200 IM
   •   50 Free
   •   Women's Diving
   •   Men's Diving
   •   400 Medley Relay

Day 2, Friday, Nov. 16 (Complete)
   •   200 Medley Relay
   •   400 IM
   •   100 Fly
   •   200 Free
   •   100 Breast
   •   100 Back
   •   Women's Diving
   •   Men's Diving
   •   800 Free Relay

Day 3, Saturday, Nov. 17
   •   1650 Free
   •   200 Back
   •   100 Free
   •   200 Breast
   •   200 Fly
   •   Platform Diving
   •   400 Free Relay