North Carolina Tar Heels vs. South Carolina Gamecocks
- November 3, 2023
- University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Dual Meet
- Meet Results
- Team Scores:
- #13 North Carolina (W) 150 – South Carolina (W) 150
- HM North Carolina (M) 161 – South Carolina 139
A Tie!
The South Carolina women’s swim team very-nearly pulled an upset of #13 North Carolina on Friday, with the meet ending in a 150-150 tie. Meanwhile, the North Carolina men went on the road and beat South Carolina 161-139.
The tie is the closest the South Carolina women have come to beating UNC since a win in 1985, with UNC winning 12 consecutive matchups heading into the meet.
Women’s Meet
The women’s meet featured huge performances from both sides of the pool, though South Carolina as the underdog will beat the loudest drum over the result.
Heading into the final race, South Carolina had a 9 point margin, which meant that UNC needed a 1-2 finish to win or a 1-3 finish to tie (with the Tarheels’ sprint depth making the 3rd-place finish a likely outcome).
The relay of Greer Pattison (49.29), Delaney Carlton (48.91), Olivia Nel (48.32), and Elizabeth Sowards (49.31) combined to finish in 3:15.83.
Nel’s split, notably, was a tenth faster than she swam on last year’s 400 free relay at the NCAA Championships where the Tar Heels placed 13th. Even with the graduation of Grace Countie and Sophie Lindner, the Tar Heels sprint group, a strength of the program over the last decade, remains strong.
North Carolina entered the swimming portion of the meet with a 20-point lead, thanks in large to a sweep by two-time NCAA Champion Aranza Vazquez.
Anatomy of a Tie
Event UNC S. Carolina Running Score 1 meter diving 14 5 UNC +9 3 Meter diving 15 4 UNC +20 200 medley relay 11 6 UNC +25 1000 free 5 14 UNC +16 200 free 9 10 UNC +15 100 back 13 6 UNC +22 100 breast 13 6 UNC +29 200 fly 3 16 UNC +16 50 free 13 6 UNC +23 100 free 8 11 UNC +20 200 back 5 14 UNC +11 200 breast 16 3 UNC +24 500 free 3 16 UNC +11 100 fly 4 15 TIE 400 IM 5 14 S.C. +9 400 free relay 13 4 TIE
While UNC has the better sprint group, South Carolina took big bites out of that lead with success in the longer freestyle races – including a maximum 16 point output in the 500 free led by Amy Riordan in 4:46.43, which is only four-tenths away from her best time set at last year’s mid-season invite.
While that time for Riordan was exciting and crucial to the team output late in the meet, it wasn’t her best performance of the day. In the 200 free earlier in the meet, she swam 1:44.31 in the 200 free to win by three-and-a-half seconds. The time also broke the school record of 1:44.61 that was set in 2019 by former US National Teamer Emma Barksdale. It also broke the Pool Record that Riordan set in 2022, and is the 2nd-fastest time in the SEC so far this season.
That time would have easily earned Riordan an invite to every prior NCAA Championship meet (last year’s cut was 1:45.31). That would be Riordan’s first invite in her sophomore season.
She also finished the day with a 49.59 on the leadoff of South Carolina’s 2nd-place 400 free relay, another lifetime best.
Best times, near-best times, and NCAA qualifiers were plentiful at the meet. Greer Pattison won the 100 back for North Carolina in 51.97, which is just .04 seconds from her lifetime best. That time is a likely NCAA invite earner and ranks her 3rd in the ACC this year behind only the two fastest performers in the history of the event, Gretchen Walsh and Katherine Berkoff.
Skyler Smith won the 100 breaststroke for UNC in 59.32, which is within four tenths of her time from last year’s NCAA Championship meet (she finished 12th).
Other highlights for South Carolina include a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 fly led by a new personal best from Nicholle Toh in 1:55.59. She and teammate Jordan Agliano were nose-to-nose the whole way, but Toh ultimately finished .16 seconds ahead. Agliano’s time was also a new lifetime best.
While 3rd-place finisher Greta Pelzek (1:56.43) wasn’t a lifetime best in that race, her 400 IM time of 4:19.24 was.
Other Meet Highlights:
- Bella Pantano was 2nd in the 100 back in 52.86 and won the 200 back in 1:54.93, which is a new lifetime best for her. Her previous best was a 1:55.57 at a Last Chance Meet in February.
- Olivia Nel added to her big relay split with a win in the 50 free in 22.59
Men’s Recap
A near-split of the diving points on the men’s side left the teams on even footing in the swimming portion of the meet, but a hot start for South Carolina gave way to a late UNC surge, with the Tar Heels coming out on top to move to a perfect 3-0 this season.
South Carolina won 8 events at the meet, including bookends with a 1:26.60 in the 200 medley relay and 2:57.76 in the 400 free relay. Both races were won by narrow margins thanks to some clutch veteran swims for the Gamecocks (their medley relay ages were 24-22-22-25).
But South Carolina had big contributions from young swimmers too. They won three of the first four events of the meet, including freshman Connor Fry in the 1000 free (9:06.57).
24-year-old Michael Laitarovsky also got an early win for South Carolina with a 46.76 in the 100 back – a personal dual meet best.
That early momentum ground to a halt, though, when North Carolina freshman Ben Delmar won the 100 breast in 54.30, beating-out Daniel West (54.67). Delmar is the best recruit in the Mark Gangloff era to date (unsurprisingly a breaststroker given his coach’s Olympic gold medals in the stroke), and has had a huge early impact early in his Tar Heel career. He has swept the 100 and 200 breaststrokes in each of the team’s dual meets so far this season.
That includes a massive 1:55.66 to win by almost five seconds in the 200 breaststroke later in the meet on Friday to kick off four-straight individual wins to end the meet for UNC and lock up victory.
That ending run included Patrick Hussey, who won the 200 free early in the meet in 1:36.38 and the 500 free late in the meet in 4:24.76. He used a huge final 50 kick in that 500 to beat Fry, who was half-a-second back in 4:25.27, and South Carolina’s Jose Castro, where a different outcome could’ve meant the meet.
That late run also included a 3:45.45 in the 400 IM from Louis Dramm. Dramm, a sophomore from Germany, didn’t come to UNC as a 400 IM’er and didn’t swim the event in yards until a last chance meet; he broke through there, though, and wound up qualifying for NCAAs and earning All-America honors via a 14th-place finish.
Other Highlights:
- South Carolina freshman Umut Yildirim of the growing Turkish distance tradition swam season-bests, which means career-bests, in all four races: 4:30.58 in the 500 free, 9:06.86 in the 1000 free, and 4:09.70 in the 400 IM.
- Sebastian Lunak, another big recruit in this freshman class for UNC, swam a pair of personal bests. He finished 2nd in the 100 fly in 47.13 and 1st in the 200 fly in 1:43.24.
Love seeing so many early season PBs and fast times this year