Carolina Women Take Second, Men Third At GT Invite

Sunday, November 24

Atlanta, Ga.

All Day

North Carolina

Georgia Tech Invitational

Emma Cole, Grace Countie, Sophie Lindner, Caroline Hauder

Emma Cole, Grace Countie, Sophie Lindner and Caroline Hauder set a new school record Sunday night.

November 24, 2019 | Swimming & Diving

Complete Results Sunday Results

ATLANTA --- Emma Cole, Caroline Hauder, Sophie Lindner and Grace Countie set a school record in the 400 freestyle relay and Bryanna Cameron and Brooke Perrotta went 1-2 in the women's 200 butterfly to cap an outstanding weekend of competition for the North Carolina swimming and diving teams at the Georgia Tech Invitational Sunday at McAuley Aquatic Center. The Carolina women finished second behind only No. 1 Florida with 999.5 points, while the Tar Heel men were third with 719 points.

"We asked our team to be resilient and they responded extremely well," head coach Mark Gangloff said. "At the end of an invitational, all the athletes are exhausted, but we were able to come together and step up in a big way tonight. To finish second on the women's side and third on the men's side is a huge confidence builder for our team heading into the spring. It all culminated with the last event of the night and the women's 400 free relay winning in a new school record time and an NCAA A standard which guarantees our place at the NCAA championships in March."

The 400 free relay put an exclamation point on a fantastic meet for the Carolina women as Cole, Hauder, Lindner and Countie combined to swim an NCAA A standard time of 3:13.15, besting the school record of 3:13.42 set in 2017.

In addition to Cameron and Perrotta in the 200 fly, a quartet of UNC women posted top-three finishes and NCAA B standard times on Sunday. Sophie Lindner took second in the 200 backstroke with a personal-best time of 1:53.70. Caroline Hauder and Emma Cole went 2-3 and both had PRs in the 100 freestyle and Lilly Higgs was second in the 200 breaststroke. Emily Grund wrapped a very solid weekend with a runner-up performance in her season debut in platform diving.

Other Carolina women to post NCAA B standard times were Grace Countie (100 free), Allie Reiter (200 breast), Ellie VanNote (200 fly) and Mary-O Soule (200 fly).

Chris Thames and Bryan Allen led the UNC men on Sunday. Thames turned in a runner-up performance in the 200 backstroke, finishing in an NCAA B standard time of 1:42.98. Allen, in his first platform outing of the year, finished second with a score of 327.65. Jack Messenger (sixth, 100 free) and Valdas Abaliksta (fourth, 200 breast) also swam NCAA B standard times on Sunday.