Carolina Sweeps Navy To Open 2020

Saturday, January 11

Chapel Hill

9:30 a.m.

North Carolina

Navy

Grace Countie
University of North Carolina Swimming and Diving v Virginia
Koury Natatorium
Chapel Hill, NC
Friday, January 25, 2019

Grace Countie won two races and swam on two winning relays Saturday.

January 11, 2020 | Swimming & Diving

UNC-Navy Final Results

CHAPEL HILL --- The North Carolina swimming and diving teams opened 2020 with a pair of wins over visiting Navy Saturday morning at Koury Natatorium. The No. 16 Tar Heel women were dominant in a 163-131 victory, while the No. 22 UNC men held off the Midshipmen by a 160-140 margin.

"I think the women's team was really dominant today," head coach Mark Gangloff said after the meet. "To watch them go out there and do their job...was a lot of fun to see and kind of sets us up really nicely for the next couple of weeks. The men's team got down in a hole and fought their way back. When your team gets into those positions, you want them to step up, and they did that."

Hear from @MarkGangloff after today's sweep of Navy: pic.twitter.com/yzwWcaHBDi
— Carolina Swimming & Diving (@uncswimdive) January 11, 2020

Emma Cole, Grace Countie, Caroline Hauder and Allie Reiter led the Carolina women, with the quartet winning both relays and seven individual, while Sophie Lindner added wins in the 100 fly and the 200 free. Emily Grund was also a double winner, sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard diving events.

On the men's side, Valdas Abaliksta and Jack Messenger each won a pair of individual events while also featuring on the victorious 200 medley relay.

Cole hit an NCAA B standard in her first 200 butterfly race of the year, touching the wall in 1:58.78. She later combined with teammate Amy Dragelin to go 1-2 in the 100 freestyle.

Countie swam the lead leg on both relays and won a 100 back-50 free double. She, Dragelin and Heidi Lowe swept the top three spots in the 100 back, with Countie and Lowe going 1-2 in the 50 free.

Hauder touched the wall in 1:58.66 to win the 200 back in her first time swimming that event this year. She also led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100 breast, touching ahead of Lilly Higgs and Reiter. Higgs and Reiter also went 1-2 in the 200 breast.

Grund was just off her top marks of the season, posting winning scores of 288.98 in the 1-meter and 338.85 in the 3-meter. Fabian Stepkinski took first in the 3-meter men's event with a score of 374.78 and second in the 1-meter with a score of 357.08, both season bests.

"I'm really excited with the whole team and the effort in the first meet of the year to get the second half of the season going," head diving coach Yaidel Gamboa said. "We've been working really hard to put into practice what we're doing and we showed that today."

And here's Coach Gamboa after another great day for Carolina diving, with @missemilygrund again leading the way: pic.twitter.com/EvUThrPdk8
— Carolina Swimming & Diving (@uncswimdive) January 11, 2020

The two most exciting moments of the day came late in the men's dual. Dimitrios Dimitriou swam a monster final 50 to out-touch Navy's Luke Johnson by 0.15 seconds to win the 500 free.
Tyler Hill and Greg Brocato then had big final pushes of their own to nose Navy's James Wilson and take 1-2 in the 100 fly for a crucial 13 team points.

Carolina is back in action on Friday, Jan. 17, when the Tar Heels host rival NC State at 6 p.m.