The North Carolina swimming and diving teams were at the Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill on Wednesday for their home opener, where they lost to N.C. State.
What happened?
All four diving events were won by Tar Heels. More specifically by sophomore Aranza Vazquez, junior Paige Burrell, as well as senior, and Olympian Anton Down-Jenkins who won both the one meter and three meter events.
After this strong start, UNC went a while without a win. In fact, N.C. State won the following events in succession: women’s 200 yard medley relay, men’s 200 yard medley relay, women’s 600 yard freestyle, men’s 600 yard freestyle, women’s 50 yard butterfly, men’s 50 yard butterfly, women’s 50 yard backstroke, men’s 50 yard backstroke, and the women’s 50 yard breaststroke.
While there were still many more events to come after this run of losses for the Tar Heels, the damage had been done on the scoreboard and the deficit was insurmountable.
Nonetheless, UNC swept the remaining breaststroke events, but N.C. State did the same for the butterfly as well as winning the majority of the remaining backstroke and freestyle races.
In the end, the N.C. State men and women won 231.50-169.50 and 220-178, respectively.
Some of the closest finishes included graduate student Valdas Abaliksta’s win in the 50 yard breaststroke by 0.01 seconds, senior Grace Countie’s second place finish in the 50 yard breaststroke in which she missed first place by 0.03 seconds, as well as her win in the 100 yard freestyle which she won by 0.06 seconds.
