North Carolina Dominates Scoring on Day 1 of Nike Cup; Relays Break Meet Records

The North Carolina men and women have built a big lead after day 1 of their hosted Nike Cup Invite, including several new Meet Records.

Team Scores After Day 1

Women

1. UNC 496
2. Duke 213
3. NC State 192
4. East Carolina 184
5. Navy 73
6. ODU 71
7. Georgia Southern 11

Men

1. UNC 406
2. NC State 227
3. Navy 196
4. East Carolina 152
5. Duke 139
6. ODU 89

Starting off in the 200 free relay, the UNC women won in 1:30.52. That included a 22.2 second split from Hannah Lincoln, who has had a breakout year sprinting for the Tar Heels, and broke the Meet Record set by Clemson back in 2007. That relay is exceedingly young (all four members are teenagers), as was the NC State Relay that took 2nd in 1:31.05 (Riki Bonnema, just a sophomore, split a 22.4 on their anchor).

Sprinting in the ACC is very young, and could be fun to watch in the future. At this meet, which featured three ACC teams, Lincoln won in 22.86. After her came a pair of relative veterans, NC State junior Lauren Poli in 22.90 and duke senior Lauren Weaver in 22.91, but after that it was all freshmen and sophomores. That includes Duke’s Maddie Rusch, who is still only 17, in 22.92 for 4th.

In the women’s 200 IM, Christine Wixted won in 1:58.60. It’s no surprise, given that she was the best breaststroker in the ACC last year, that the difference came on that third 50 yards of this race, where she split 33.51. That was more than two seconds better the UNC’s Hannah Runyon-Hass, who wound up 2nd in 2:00.56, and her freshman teammate Madison Burns, who was 3rd in this race in 2:01.69. 6 out of the top 8 finishers in the race were Tar Heels.

In the 500 free, North Carolina’s Stephanie Peacock, who was the 2012 NCAA Champion in the event, won in 4:36.40, with some pretty amazing splitting.

Peacock by 50: 25.8 – 27.6 – 27.7 – 27.8 – 27.7 – 27.8 – 27.8 – 27.8 – 28.2 – 27.8

Aside from that one little drop-off headed into her last 50, she was amazingly consistent throughout the 500. Still, the time was a bit slower than what we saw in her breakout 2011-2012 year.

The Tar Heels again dominated the top of the scoring with the top 5 finishers. Sophomore Emma Nunn took 2nd in 4:43.00, and  Danielle Siverling was 3rd in 4:47.59. The Tar Heels closed the session with a 1-2 finish in the 400 medley relay.

The winning team was Carly Smith (54.60), Katherine Rechsteiner (1:01.49), Sarah Koucheki (53.05), and Ally Hardesty (48.92). The standout split among those is Koucheki’s butterfly.

Duke took 3rd in the relay in 3:42.78. Wixted was 1:00.51 on their breaststroke leg.

In the men’s meet, the story of depth was a little bit more in favor of North Carolina State. They finished with the top spot in the opening 200 free relay, swimming a 1:18.97. Jonathan Boffa went for a 19.41 on their 2nd leg, following Andreas Schiellerup who led off in 19.69.

North Carolina took 2nd in 1:19.34. They were dead even headed into the anchor after a 19.51 from Sam Lewis, but JT Stilley couldn’t make the last push ahead of NC State’s David Williams. In fairness, the sprints are not Stilley’s forte.

The Wolfpack went 1-3, and between their A and B relays had four legs under 20 seconds.

The Naval Academy’s Thomas Duvall fired up his team with a win in the 500 free in 4:22.51. For the sophomore, that’s almost as fast as he was all of last season. What makes that really exciting is that between this meet last year and the Patriot League Championships last year, he dropped about five seconds. If he repeats that this season, he could wind up as an NCAA qualifier.

Stilley, coming just off of that relay sprint, took 2nd in 4:23.45, while East Carolina’s Michael Dugan was 3rd in 4:26.00.

North Carolina’s men only won one event on the first day of this meet, but they still dominated scoring due to their depth in races like this 500, where they put 5 in the A final. That sort of depth won’t necessarily help them at NCAA’s, but if they want to challenge Virginia’s streak of ACC titles, these are the kind of 5-and-6 deep results they need to post.

Old Dominion’s Sidni Hoxha, an Albanian and the defending CAA Swimmer of the Year, won the men’s 50 free in 19.44. Though we’ll have to see through the weekend to figure out where that sits nationally, it should emerge at least in the top 5 headed into Thanksgiving, and breaks the School Record in the event. He was one of two ODU swimmers to break records – Yesim Giresunlu broke the women’s 500 free record earlier in the session with a 4:49.74.

North Carolina State’s Schillereup took 2nd in 19.74; he’s coming off of the Danish SC National Championships, where he broke the National Record in SCM. Boffa was 3rd in 20.21, and UNC’s Logan Heck took 4th in 20.23.

As mentioned, The Tar Heels got just one win in Thursday’s session, but that one win was an exciting one. Redshirt sophomore Dominick Glavich came from behind on the freestyle leg to take the 200 IM in 1:48.20. He made up a full second deficit on East Carolina’s Roka Cepulis as they came toward the finish; Cepulis wound up .06 seconds back in 1:48.26.

North Carolina’s depth, which is absent in the sprint frees, looked healthy once again in this 200 IM, as Eugene Tee was 3rd in 1:48.48, and Patrick Myers was 4th in 1:49.64.

And finally, in the men’s 400 free relay, the men of North Carolina State got the win with a 3:11.47 – crushing Tennessee’s 2003 Meet Record. All four legs were solid for them, as Schiellergup led off in a 47.1 backstroke, followed by Ian Bishop in 54.01 breaststroke, Barrett Miesfeld in a 47.05 fly, and Boffa’s 43.25 freestyle anchor split. Boffa was probably the best leg of those, though none really were explosive.

North Carolina, meanwhile, wasn’t as good across-the-board, but Sam Lewis’ butterfly split of 46.25 was prety explosive as they took 2nd in 3:11.91.

East Carolina was 3rd in 3:18.50.

Day 1 results available here.