Louisville, KY, November 8, 2014 – The action-packed, two-day meet between the University of Louisville (UL) Cardinals and the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels ended in a split victory, with the Tarheel women earning the win (194 – 150), while the UL men rolled over UNC 220-133.
Women’s Meet
Louisville’s power duo of Tanja Kylliainen (senior) and Kelsi Worrell (junior) were dependable as usual, as they earned seven individual event wins between them. However, depth was the name of the game in the Tar Heels’ victory over the Cardinals, as UNC Women often wound up in multiple point-earning places, even if those places didn’t include first.
For her part, Kylliainen was in beast mode, as she clocked the winning times in the 200 individual medley (1:58.48*), the 200 butterfly (1:56.37*), the 100 backstroke (54.29), as well as the 400 individual medley (4:14:04*). In that 400 IM, Kylliainen finished almost six seconds over the next competitor, which symbolized her strenth in that event NCAA-wide thus far this season. Kylliainen was also a key player in the UL-winning 200 free relay (relay time of 1:32.16) and the UL-winning 400 free relay (relay time of 3:38.82).
On an individual level, Kelsi Worrell also made an impact with her three individual wins in the 100 freestyle (49.08*), the 50 freestyle (22.96*), and 100 butterfly (53.55*), while also contributing to the 200 free relay and the 200/400 medley relays.
The Tar Heels, however, continued to rack up the points with fast finishes of their own, often in 1-2 fashion. This included junior Emma Nunn’s swift first place time of 4:49.77 in the 500 freestyle, closely followed by senior teammate Danielle Silverling’s 4:52.87 for second. Tar Heels’ backstroker Hellen Moffitt (sophomore) clocked a 1:57.62* to win the 200 backstroke, with UNC Canadian junior Annie Harrison touching the wall in second place with a time of 1:58.62.* On day two, Nunn once again led the field with a first place time in the 1000 freestyle (9:53.15), while Tarheel 200 freestylers, Allyn Hardesty (1:49.28) and Danielle Siverling (1:49.04) dropped the hammer on UL in that event.
With the Tarheel women earning the victory in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay (3:23.25), as well as earning the top two spots in both the 3-meter and 1-meter diving competitions (Elissa Dawson won both), they sealed the win over the Cardinals to move to a 3-1 record thus far this season.
Men’s Meet
On the men’s side, the Cardinals’ demonstrated prowess in the IM and breaststroke events did not fail to deliver, as UL scored highly in these areas and more to earn the team’s win over UNC. New Caledonian senior, Thomas Dahlia, earned the victory in the 100 breaststroke in a winning time of 54.41* and would later come in second (2:00.09) in the 200 breaststroke to freshman teammate, Venezuelan Carlos Claverie, who topped the field in 1:59.99 (just off the NCAA B cut of 1:59.79).
Cardinal Nolan Tessone earned the 200 individual medley win in 1:48.34*, while also leading the UL 400 individual medley sweep, earning the top spot in a time of 3:51.79*, followed by teammates Carlos Claverie (3:59.28) and Josh Quallen (4:01.49). The Cardinals also ended up sweeping the 50 freestyle event, with senior Caryl Blondell (20.15*) in first, followed by German sophomore Matthias Lindenbauer (20.79) and senior Rudy Edelen (20.91).
In somewhat of a surprise win, Louisville sophomore Aaron Greene just touched out fellow Cardinal Grigory Tarasevich in the 200 backstroke (Greene – 1:45.10*, Tarasevich – 1:45.12*). For Greene, not only did his time clear the NCAA provisional standard, it also was a significant time drop from the 1:47.45 he clocked at the Quad Meet in Ann Arbor in just two weeks ago.
The highlight for the Tar Heels came in the form of the butterfly events, where junior Ben Colley (2014 National Teamer) utterly dominated the 200 distance, decisively earning the win with a 1:46.64* in what looked like a very smooth and easy-speed swum race. Tarheel teammate, junior Sam Lewis, topped the 100 butterfly field 47.78* to help the UNC points cause. Jack Nyquist also did his part in the diving realm, putting points on the board for UNC with wins in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events.
However, with Blondell’s blistering 19.49 freestyle split in the Cardinal men’s winning 200 medley relay (relay time of 1:27.52), the men of Louisville’s domination just would not be shut down in their pursuit to add a win in their season record column.
UNC Tar Heels’ next competition is the Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup, taking place in Chapel Hill November 20th-22nd. The Louisville Cardinal men and women are hosting the University of Louisville Invite at Ralph Wright Natatorium scheduled for November 21-23rd.
*Denotes NCAA B Cuts