Virginia Sweeps North Carolina In Road Dual Meet
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept North Carolina in a dual meet on Friday (Jan. 22) at the Koury Natatorium.
The No. 10 Virginia men’s team overcame a 10-point deficit in the final two events of the night to defeat the No. 20 Tar Heels 154-144, while the No. 2 Cavalier women won 174-121 against No. 24 North Carolina.
The Women’s Meet
The women’s team won 10 events during the competition with sophomore Maddie Donohoe (Annandale, Va.), sophomore Kate Douglass (Pelham, N.Y.) and freshman Abby Harter (Broadlands, Va.) each winning a pair of individual races.
The Cavaliers opened the meet with the 200-yard medley relay team of freshman Reilly Tiltmann (Brookfield, Wisc.), freshman Anna Keating (Vienna, Va.), Douglass and freshman Alex Walsh (Nashville, Tenn.) recording a time of 1:38.04 to win by over a second.
In addition to her win with the 200-yard medley relay team, Douglass swam a season-best time of 1:46.51 in the 200-yard freestyle to place first in the event, before following with the top time in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:08.26.
Donohoe won both distance freestyle events, turning in a time of 4:53.02 in the 500-yard freestyle and a time of 10:21.01 in the 1000-yard freestyle.
Harter dominated the butterfly events, going 54.31 and 1:58.40 in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly, respectively.
Virginia also recorded wins from freshman Alex Walsh in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.27, senior Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.) in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.13 and sophomore Ella Nelson (Nashville, Tenn.) in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:08.14.
The Men’s Meet
Junior Justin Grender (Cincinnati, Ohio), sophomore Jack Walker (Charlotte, N.C.) and freshman Matt Brownstead (Port Matilda, Pa.) aided in the Cavaliers’ win over North Carolina as all three swimmers recorded wins in more than one event.
Grender swept the 100 and 200-yard backstroke with a time of 48.23 and 1:44.91, respectively.
Walker recorded a season-best time of 9:19.63 in the 1000-yard freestyle before swimming a time of 4:27.06 in the 500-yard freestyle.
Brownstead continued to dominate the sprint freestyle events. He won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.91 and the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.47.
Storch won the last individual event of the night, the 400-yard individual medley, by over two seconds. He swam a time of 3:50.97 to help the Cavaliers close the gap on the Tar Heels.
Brownstead, sophomore August Lamb (Charlottesville, Va.), sophomore Konnar Klinksiek (San Antonio, Texas) and Grender captured the fastest 200-yard freestyle time of the meet at 1:19.41 to secure the win for the Cavaliers.
Quote from Todd DeSorbo
“Proud of our teams’ fight tonight on the road against a strong UNC team,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “We knew they would provide a great competition and our team stepped up to the challenge. The ladies stepped on the gas from the first relay and didn’t look back. The men had a battle down to the wire, coming down to the last relay. It’s a position our men have been in before so they know how to close a meet with great IMs and a finishing free relay. We had a lot of great performances overall. Not much time to think about this meet as we turn around and race at NC State tomorrow morning. Looking forward to another great battle!”
Next
Virginia will return to action on Saturday (Jan. 23) as the teams head to Raleigh to face NC State in an 11 a.m. dual meet.