University of North Carolina Athletics
Swimming & Diving
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
A four-year letter winner and 2001 graduate of the University, Dave Meschke rejoins the program this season as a graduate assistant. He will primarily coach the distance and sprint breaststroke groups, but will also make himself available to aid the coaching staff at other workouts.
Although he is little removed from the arena of the UNC athlete, Meschke has had some coaching experience in prior summers. In both 1999 and 2000, he led the Atlanta Athletic Club summer swim team to second place finishes in league and championship meet competition. As head coach, he instructed over 130 swimmers, including four children of former UNC swimmer Mike Eddy. He regretfully had to leave the position last summer to remain in Chapel Hill and take classes toward his graduate degree.
Meschke, now 22, remains in Chapel Hill this year as a graduate student in the Master of Accounting Program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Upon graduation from the program, he hopes to pass the North Carolina CPA exam and move to the Washington D.C. area to begin a career as a public accountant. In May 2001, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University.
As a UNC athlete, Meschke competed most often in the breaststroke events; indeed, he rarely raced in anything else, except the 50 freestyle. He suggests that his best performance in either event came at the conference championships in 2000, when, in a time trial, he qualified for senior nationals and narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic trials in the 100 breaststroke. He tends to avoid discussing his successes in other races, but is occasionally forced into such conversations by other swimmers and coaches. He still lists his biggest sports thrill as his membership with the team in 1998, when they won the men’s ACC championship.
