UNC men's and women's swimming and diving teams finish in ACC Tournament top 10

When the UNC swimming and diving teams headed to Atlanta for the ACC Championships, they were vying for — and expecting — big wins. Going up against conference rivals such as Duke University, University of Virginia and N.C. State University, North Carolina looked to get an edge up on its opponents.

Boasting a strong roster including two Olympic athletes and coming off a season with wins against the Blue Devils and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for the women’s team, the Tar Heels wrapped up their ACC Championship stint on Sunday ranked fourth in the women’s bracket and seventh in the men’s.

Ultimately, Virginia took home the conference title in the women’s competition by a 71.5-point margin, and the N.C. State men’s swim team managed a landslide win, finishing over 300 points in front of runner-up University of Louisville. 

The competition showcased some of the best performances of UNC athletes thus far, with more than 80 personal bests and several broken school relay records.

Senior Grace Countie, one of the three athletes who reached the finals in their respective events, established relay records in the 400-yard medley, the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relay, while also setting a new school record in the 50-yard freestyle at 21.45 seconds.

“All in all, we had a really successful meet," Countie said. "I’ve always had pretty big goals, like the rest of the team and the coaches, and I think that a lot of us were impressed with our showing this weekend."

First-year Greer Pattison finished in eighth place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.29. Pattison made the finals alongside Countie and senior Sophie Lindner, and scored in all of her other events.

“She was an immediate impact player at the ACC championships, which is hard to do as a freshman,” head coach Mark Gangloff said. “She was setting these relay records with seniors on the team, and she just had an amazing meet.”

Sophomore diver and 2020 Olympic athlete Aranza Vázquez took home fourth in the finals of the 1-meter. Senior Anton Down-Jenkins defended his first place title in the finals of the 1-meter dive and placed second in the 3-meter. 

Down-Jenkins felt a lot of pressure to perform last weekend, in particular the 1-meter dive, citing the increase in competition across the ACC. 

"I was a little bit nervous going into conferences this year, especially coming off a successful season last year," Down-Jenkins said. "I felt like there were a lot of expectations that other coaches and other teams had of me.”

Big players in the women’s diving competition included junior Paige Burrell, who placed eighth in the 1-meter dive finals and sixth in the 3-meter finals.

In the 1-meter event, she pulled off a front three-and-a-half dive, a maneuver that involves the diver doing three flips and a half-flip before hitting the water.

Now, UNC looks to get more athletes to qualify in the upcoming Last Chance meets. The women's team competes Friday and Saturday while the men's team will compete on March 4 and 5.

As for the team, four days of events and hard-fought wins have given them a lot of reason to rest before they head back to the pool in Atlanta for the Division I National Championship.

In the coming three weeks, the women’s team’s hoping to refocus and recenter themselves before once again vying for titles.

"I’m excited to really move back into some aerobic work, get ourselves moving and get better,” Countie said.

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