Virginia Travels To Face ACC Foes North Carolina, NC State

Courtesy: Virginia Athletics

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will travel to North Carolina and NC State this weekend to compete in a pair of ACC dual meets. The Cavaliers will face North Carolina at the Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill at 5 p.m. on Friday (Jan. 22) before traveling to NC State on Saturday (Jan. 23) to face the Wolfpack at 10 a.m. at the Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center in Raleigh.

How To Follow

Both meets will be streamed on ACCNX with links available at VirginiaSports.com. Live results will be available for the team’s meet against North Carolina, while results will be pushed to Meet Mobile for both dual meets. Updates throughout both competitions will be provided on the team’s official Twitter account (@UVASwimDive).

In the Rankings
• The Cavalier women enter the weekend as the top ranked team in the ACC and second-ranked team in the NCAA, according to the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America.
• NC State is ranked sixth and North Carolina is ranked 24th nationally in the women’s poll.
• NC State leads the conference on the men’s side ranking sixth nationally, while Virginia ranks 10th and North Carolina ranks 20th.

Hoos Leading the NCAA
• Sophomore Kate Douglass (Pelham, N.Y.) and senior Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.) pace the Cavaliers as both athletes lead the NCAA in events.
•  Douglass leads the NCAA in four events with the top time in the 50-yard freestyle (21.42), 100-yard freestyle (46.86), 100-yard butterfly (49.73) and 200-yard individual medley (1:50.92).
• Madden ranks first in the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.39) and 500-yard freestyle (4:33.09), and ranks second in the mile (16:01.93).
• The Cavaliers also have four additional females that hold a top-five performance this season.
• Junior Alexis Wenger (Detroit) recorded the fourth-fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke (58.69).
• Freshman Alex Walsh (Nashville, Tenn.) ranks third in both in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:06.72) and 200-yard individual medley (1:54.47).
• Freshman Abby Harter (Broadlands, Va.) ranks fifth in the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.73), while sophomore Ella Nelson (Nashville, Tenn.) ranks fifth in the 200-yard individual medley (1:54.74) and third in the 400-yard individual medley (4:05.02).
• Freshman Matt Brownstead (Port Matilda, Pa.), senior Keefer Barnum (Louisville, Ky.) and junior Justin Grender (Cincinnati, Ohio) lead the men’s team with national rankings.
• Brownstead is ranked seventh nationally in the 50-yard freestyle (19.26) and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (42.03).
• Grender ranks eighth in the 200-yard backstroke (1:41.26) and Barnum ranks eighth in the 200-yard breaststroke (1:54.36).

Last Time Out
• The Cavaliers swept Virginia Tech in the team’s last outing, winning 23 events at the dual meet.
• Douglass recorded three individual wins and a relay win to pace the women’s team.
• Senior Matthew Otto (Newark, Del.), Grender and Brownstead each won two individual events as Grender and Brownstead also secured wins with both relays.
• On the boards, sophomore Charlotte Bowen (Dana Point, Calif.) recorded a pair of career-best scores to finish second on both springboards. She recorded a score of 281.20 on the 1m board and a score of 306.90 on the 3m board.
• Senior Tristan Gess (Lakewood, Colo.) also recorded a career-best dive at the meet, scoring 289.50 on the 1m board.

A Look at North Carolina
• The Cavaliers are undefeated against the Tar Heels under Todd DeSorbo as both teams enter the meet with a 3-0 record.
• North Carolina has competed in two dual meets this season, both against the Wolfpack.
• North Carolina also hosted a four-team competition against NC State, Virginia Tech and Duke to close out the fall as the Tar Heels placed second in the men’s competition and third in the women’s competition.
• North Carolina is led by Sophie Lindner who holds the ninth-fastest 200-yard backstroke time in the NCAA.
• Tyler Hill leads the men’s team with the eighth-best 100-yard backstroke time in the NCAA this season.

The NC State Wolfpack
• The Cavaliers are 2-1 on the women’s side and 0-3 on the men’s side against NC State since DeSorbo’s first season at UVA.
• In addition to its dual meets against UNC, the Wolfpack competed head-to-head against Duke this season. NC State swept that meet against the Blue Devils.
• Nationally, six females and four males rank in the top 10 of an event.
• Katharine Berkoff leads the NCAA in the 100-yard backstroke and ranks third in the 200-yard backstroke.
• Kylee Alons ranks fourth in the 50-yard free, sixth in the 100-yard butterfly, seventh in the 100-yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard backstroke, while Kate Moore ranks fourth in the 500-yard freestyle and fifth in both the 200-yard backstroke and 400-yard individual medley.
• Yara Hierath holds the seventh-best time in the mile, while Julia Poole ranks 10th in the 200-yard individual medley and Andrea Podmanikova ranks fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke and 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke.
• On the men’s side, Nyls Korstanje leads the team with the second-best 50-yard freestyle time, ninth-best 100-yard butterfly time and 10th-best 100-yard freestyle time.
• Ross Dant ranks sixth in the 500-yard freestyle and eighth in the mile, Eric Knowles ranks sixth in the mile and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle, and Zach Brown ranks ninth in the 200-yard butterfly.