Carolina Falls To NC State

Saturday, January 19

Raleigh, NC

11:00 A.M.

North Carolina

NC State

January 19, 2019 | Swimming & Diving

Results

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The North Carolina swimming and diving teams fell to the nationally-ranked NC State Wolfpack in their Saturday dual meet in Raleigh, N.C. The men's final score read 101-193 and the women's 97-197.

"We have total respect for NC State," head coach Rich DeSelm said. "They have a fabulous program. Extremely well-coached. They have tons of support over here — which we have as well — but they are very, very good. We came over here with some goals and a lot of them we achieved. We didn't win many races. Second half of the meet, I thought we had more people placing."

Four Tar Heels took home individual event titles and Carolina's freestyle relays placed first to close out the competition. Sophomore Alvin Jiang swam 47.87 to beat out his NC State opponents for the win in the 100 fly and sophomore Valdas Abaliksta clocked 1:58.51 in the 200 breast for first place.
Freshman Thomas Bretzmann won the 500 freestyle for the Heels and on the women's side, freshman Lilly Higgs captured the 200 breaststroke title with a time of 2:17.19.

"I thought our team's energy was good," DeSelm said. "It's a big challenge to keep in the meet when you're not winning a lot, but our team did and that was one of the goals. The times are always important, but they don't matter as much as the energy we had, the enthusiasm, the support and how we swam our races…It's all tune-up for the next time out and for ACCs. I'm proud of our team. They've got their eyes on the end of the year and between now and then we've got Virginia next Friday and Duke the following Saturday, so we've got plenty to come to practice for and to be excited about."

NOTEWORTHY PERFORMANCES
Women
• 200 Medley Relay - Grace Countie, Caroline Hauder, Sophie Lindner and Kate Boyer teamed up to finish second in the event with a time of 1:40.26.
• 200 Back - Sophie Lindner maintained her season-long streak as Carolina's top finisher in the women's 200 backstroke and swam 1:57.33 for second place.
• 500 Free - Robyn Dryer and Bryanna Cameron topped off the podium, finishing second and third with respective times of 4:56.30 and 4:59.91.
• 100 Fly - Sophie Lindner swam 55.13 (second place) for her third top-two finish of the day and Emma Cole placed third with a time of 57.25.
• 200 IM - Caroline Hauder and Mary-O Soule clocked 2:06.87 and 2:07.61 for second and third in the event.

Men
• 100 Back - Alvin Jiang finished a mere 0.02 seconds behind a three-time national champion for second-place honors.
• 100 Breast - Valdas Abaliksta and Sterling Smith teamed up to take home second- and third-place honors, respectively, with times of 55.11 and 55.29.
• 500 Free - Thomas Bretzmann was joined by Nick Palmer and Daniel Koenigsperger in the sweep of the men's 500 freestyle. Bretzmanm swam 4:38.55, Palmer 4:40.43 and Koenigsperger 4:48.32.
• 200 IM - Tyler Hill (1:54.86) and Austin Sellers (1:56.08) finished second and third in the final individual event of the day.

UP NEXT: The Tar Heels return home for back-to-back weekends of dual meet competition. Carolina hosts Virginia men (#16) and women (#11) on Friday, Jan. 25 and Duke on Saturday, Feb. 2 in Koury Natatorium.