UNC swimming takes 15th at NCAAs

The third time’s a charm for Rich DeSelm.

In his past two years as head coach at North Carolina, the men’s swimming and diving team has been stuck in the 20s. In 2008 and 2009, the Tar Heels finished 29th and 26th, respectively, in the NCAA Championship meet.

But this weekend UNC broke the trend, jumping to 15th place and earning its highest NCAA finish since 1996.

Men’s Swimming results

UNC finished 15th at the NCAAs, its best finish since 1996.
All-Americans
         Tommy Wyher, junior
         Joe Kinderwater, junior
         Tyler Harris, junior

Honorable All-Americans
         Chip Peterson, junior
         Tom Luchsinger, freshman
         Steve Cebertowicz, sophomore
         Evan Reed, sophomore
         Wil Singley, sophomore
         Brad Hamilton, sophomore

Nine men traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to represent UNC in the championship meet. In 2009, only four Tar Heels qualified for the NCAAs, and in 2008 just three.

“I want to see us keep climbing up the ranks,” junior Joe Kinderwater said. “There were a bunch of coaches from other teams that were coming up to us and congratulating us on how much we’ve improved.”

With his sixth place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Kinderwater earned All-America honors in the event for the third year in a row.

“I want to cap off a great career here and make it four-for-four,” he said.

All nine Tar Heels earned either first-team or honorable mention All-America honors during the weekend.

Tommy Wyher, who became a six-time ACC champion in last month’s conference tournament, tied for fifth place in the 100-yard butterfly and 13th in the 100-yard backstroke.

“It would have been nice to go my time, and I would have been second,” Wyher said. “But you can’t really complain about a top-five finish.”

Tyler Harris nabbed UNC’s third first-team All-America spot with an eighth-place finish despite swimming more than two seconds slower than his preliminary time.

The swimmers will have a two-week break before diving right back into training.

“We all came to Carolina knowing that the team was on the rise with the philosophy that (DeSelm) brought to the program,” Kinderwater said.

“It’s just great to see that all these good things are happening and we actually are getting better as a program. (That is) the thing we wanted, which is why we came to Carolina.”

Other All-America performances

1650-yard freestyle

Joe Kinderwater (6th place — 14:51.88)
Kinderwater has now been fifth, eighth and sixth in the 1650 in the last three NCAA meets.
Chip Peterson (13th place — 14:57.43)

400-yard freestyle relay

11th place (2:54.86) Evan Reed (43.96), Tommy Wyher (42.86), Steve Cebertowicz (43.73), Brad Hamilton (44.31)

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.