ACC Men’s Swimmer of the Week: Tommy Wyher (UNC)
ACC Women’s Swimmer of the Week: Stephanie Peacock (UNC)
North Carolina Men Shock Georgia in Easy Win
Coming into this meet, we knew North Carolina was going to be very good this year. Therefore it was no huge surprise that they were able to knock off the Georgia Bulldogs for the second straight season. The manner in which the Tarheels manhandled the competition, however, was the real shock on Friday afternoon in Chappel Hill. Whereas last year’s contest was a tight, twelve point affair, the final score of this meet was a 183-117 romping to move North Carolina to 2-0 on the season, while the Bulldogs sit at 0-1. This was a very exciting meet that sits as probably the fastest we’ve seen yet this year, even surpassing the Florida-Virginia top 10 showdown we saw a week ago.
- UNC took both relays in the meet and won 8 out of the 14 individual events en route to the win.
- UNC’s Tyler Harris swam a career best time in the 1000 freestyle, taking second in 9:08.02, which makes him the third fastest Tarheel ever in that event. While a career-best in a distance event at this time of the season might seem fishy (rest week?), remember that the 1000 isn’t swum at Conference Championship and NCAA meets. Harris is showing great promise in joining Joe Kinderwater in a great 1-2 distance punch for the Tarheels.
- Tommy Wyher is really fast. While we’re still waiting for great times to drop out of programs like Cal, Wyher put up season bests of 48.16 in the 100 fly and 48.30 in the 100 back. The former stands as the second-best time in the nation thus far, and the latter is the fastest by far. He has pushed his way into the National Championship conversation in both events, and therefore potential Swimmer of the Year candidacy.
- The UNC 400 free relay put up a blazing 3:00.47, just .03 behind UNLV for the best time in the nation this year. This includes another great time from Wyher splitting 44.53 in the second leg. Steve Cebertowicz also had a great leg in the leadoff, by going a 44.78 flat-start.
- Much-heralded Georgia freshman Jameson Hill got his NCAA career off to a great start with an impressive win in the 200 free in 1:38.77. This is the fourth best time in the nation, and is only a second off of his lifetime best. Hill might be even better than expected for Georgia.
- The best race of the meet was the 200 fly, which was won by Georgia’s Mark Dylla, who is the favorite to win the National Title in the event. He was given an big push by UNC’s Thomas Luchsinger, who was 17th in this event at NCAA’s last year. Their times of 1:48.2 and 1:48.3 placed them third and fourth, respectively, in the nation this year.
- This meet was littered with other top 3 national times, including Kinderwater in the 500 free (4:28.20), Georgia’s Bill Cregar in the 200 IM (1:49.76) and the 200 breaststroke (2:01.60), and Cebertowicz in the 100 free (44.62, though just off of his season best, would still be top 3).
Outstanding meet, and an especially great performance by UNC. We’ll have to see over the next few weeks whether or not these times are real, but if so, they could give Virginia a huge push for the ACC title this season.
Full Results available through the UNC website here.
Georgia Women Take Down Carolina in Unconventional Manner
The Georgia Bulldogs are the queens of freestyle swimming in the NCAA. They live-and-die by the free, and they scored more freestyle points at NCAA’s than any other team in the nation.
So it might come as a surprise that the Georgia women only won two of the five freestyle events, and 6 of 14 individual events overall, but still took down a strong North Carolina team 168-132.
Georgia might be missing the graduated Anne-Marie Botek in the sprint events more than they thought they would, as UNC’s Rebecca Kane won both the 50 and 100 freestyles, with times of 23.05 and 50.49. Georgia showed great depth by taking three out of the top five spots in each event, and depth was how they won the meet.
Tarheel freshman Stephanie Peacock shocked everybody by winning the 500 free in 4:43.70, which is easily best in the nation and third-best all time at UNC. The defending Florida State Champ handled Georgia’s Allison Schmitt and Wendy Trott, who finished first and third at NCAA’s last year. Trott’s mark of 4:46.72 is third best in the country this season.
We may have gotten our answer as to who Georgia would be grooming to be their butterflier this season, with Morgan Scroggy as their top finisher in the 100 with a time of 56.10. That’s still going to need a lot of improvement for Georgia to be competitive in the medley relays. Georgia is still as good as ever, however, in the freestyle relays. Their 400 free relay turned in the second-best time in the nation this year in 3:20.94. This includes a stellar 49.65 anchor from Schmitt.
The Georgia duo of Melanie Margalis and Michelle McKeehan finished 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke, with Margalis winning in an NCAA “B” cut of 1:02.53. This depth in the breaststrokes might allow Margalis to give Georgia some support in the butterfly events, with her splitting a decen 25.25 in the 50 fly during a second-place 200 medley relay effort.
The Georgia women are now 1-0 on the season, with North Carolina falling to 1-1. Full results are available here from the UNC website.
Other Results
Ann Fittin’s 23.17 in the 50 free (9th nationally) leads the Maryland Women (1-0) to a 173-127 victory over NC State (1-1)…The NC State men (2-0) returned the favor by winning easily 190-108 over the Maryland Men (0-1). Wolfpack transfer Ivan Kopas is making a huge mark on the NC-State Top-10 record books already, including a 49.30 100 back…The Florida State women extended a state-wide 5-0 month by knocking off Miami 179.5-120.5 and Florida Gulf Coast 213-87…The Seminole men ran their record to 3-0 with a 122-43 win over Florida A&M. The upperclassmen took the day off, as the Seminole freshmen and sophomores won every event en route to the victory…Georgia Tech Men and Women both had tight meets with Western Kentucky, with the women sneaking in to win at 152.5-147.5, and the men losing a heartbreaker 151-149. Freshman Anton Langerqvist is a rising star for the Jackets, winning the 200 breaststroke in 2:04.15…