Women's Swimming Falls To No. 2 Texas

Saturday, January 29

Chapel Hill

9 AM

North Carolina

Texas (Women)

Aranza Vazquez 3-meter dive University of North Carolina Swimming and Diving v Texas Koury Natatorium Chapel Hill, NC Saturday, January 29, 2022

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

January 29, 2022 | Swimming & Diving

Complete Results (PDF)

CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina's 24^th-ranked women's swimming and diving team fell to No. 2 Texas on Senior Day Saturday morning, 141-102.

Led by sophomore Aranza Vazquez's sweep of the diving events, the Tar Heels closed out their dual meet season with an overall record of 3-4.

Seniors Grace Countie, Emily Grund, Lilly Higgs, Sophie Lindner, and Heidi Lowe were each recognized prior to the meet as were the senior members of the men's team: Valdas Abaliksta, Tucker Burhans, Anton Down-Jenkins, Jaco Rauch and Tomas Sungaila.

Due to Covid-19 protocols, the men's senior day meet against NC State on Jan. 14 was cancelled.

"This class had a coaching changeover, NCAAs taken away as sophomores and two years dealing with Covid," UNC Head Coach Mark Gangloff said." They've been through a lot, but they bought into the vision I have for the program and are here for the right reasons.

"They just want to see the UNC and the swimming and diving program be as great as it can be. I commend them for sticking it out, pushing through and leading our team to the best of their ability."

Countie scored the Tar Heels' lone individual victory the pool, winning the 50-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 22.10. She also swam the lead leg for Carolina's victorious 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:29.30).

Olivia Nel, Lindner, and Lowe teamed with Countie to edge the Longhorns' top relay team by 0.06 seconds.

Junior Ellie VanNote recorded a pair of top 3 finishes, capturing second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:48.19) and third in the 100-yard butterfly (53.47).

Higgs and sophomore Lexi Rudolph finished second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard breaststroke. Rudolph placed second in the 200-yard IM as well.

"We had some great swims today," Gangloff said. "Being that we had to swim at 9:30 in the morning it's hard to get your body all the way awake, yet we were still doing best times, season best times against a formidable opponent. I'm very pleased with the way we were able to step up today."

The Tar Heels will return to competition February 15 on day one of the ACC Championships in Atlanta.

"After working so hard for six months or so, at the end of a swim season you've got to recover," Gangloff explained. "We're going to get as much rest as we can and continue to recover because ultimately get on top of the water and be really, really fast. I think we've set ourselves up to do that."