Ranked Virginia Tops Carolina In Friday Dual Meet

Friday, January 25

Chapel Hill, N.C.

3:00 P.M.

North Carolina

Virginia

Photo by: UNC Athletic Communications

January 25, 2019 | Swimming & Diving

Results Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The North Carolina Tar Heels gave a great effort in Koury Natatorium against Virginia's nationally-ranked women's (#5) and men's (#14) teams on Friday. Carolina's women fell 126-172 and the men were bested 112-187 in their second-to-last dual meet of the 2018-19 season.

"Virginia's got a great team," head coach Rich DeSelm said. "They're well-coached and they've got talent across the board. They did what they needed to do, but I was more focused on our team. Even though we didn't win the meet, today was awesome. We accomplished a lot of goals and I think the team can stand tall and be proud of how they went about things."

Six Tar Heels and the women's 400 medley relay collectively recorded nine season bests and UNC took 23 top-two times/scores against the Virginia Cavaliers. Carolina went one-two in three events, including the women's 100 back, men's 100 breast and women's 200 free relay and also finished nine events with the best performance of the meet.

Freshmen Grace Countie (53.65) and Sophie Lindner (54.25) paired up to finish first and second in the women's 100 back while sophomore Alvin Jiang immediately followed their performances with a 100 back title of his own in the men's race, clocking the top time of 47.85.

Sophomore Valdas Abaliksta and freshman Sterling Smith followed their teammates' lead in the men's 100 breast. Abaliksta touched the wall in 54.11 for the first of his two individual wins and Smith recorded a time of 54.46 — a whole second faster than the third-place finisher. Abaliksta would also go on to finish first in the men's 200 breast with a time of 1:59.71.

Three more Tar Heels would take individual titles in the pool. Junior Bryanna Cameron finished first in the women's 200 fly (1:58.43) and sophomore Eli Coan made an impressive run from lane one to take the men's 50 free in 20.58. Additionally, sophomore Caroline Hauder won the women's 200 IM with a time of 2:00.40.

On the diving boards, senior Maria Lohman had an impressive showing with season-best scores in both of her events. Lohman took the three-meter springboard title with a season-high 334.95 points and was the women's one-meter runner-up with another season-best score of 302.93.

In the relays, three freshmen — Grace Countie, Lilly Higgs and Sophie Lindner — teamed up with senior Zhada Fields for the fastest 400 medley relay time of the season (3:40.13).

"Keeping the team energy is very important," DeSelm said. "Swimming success goes in cycles. We're not as competitive as we have been with NC State and Virginia in past years, but there's no give up in this team. Every meet is a learning opportunity and a chance to find a way to be better, to find a way to help your team members be better. I think we did that today."

UP NEXT: The Tar Heels host the Duke Blue Devils for their senior day meet on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 12 p.m. in Koury Natatorium. Hoping to enter the postseason with one more pair of wins, Carolina knows this week of preparation will be key as they head into their third and final head-to-head conference matchup of the regular season.