Douglass hits 2:08 200 Breast, Men Come Down to Final Relay, as UVA Sweeps UNC | SwimSwam

By Robert Gibbs on SwimSwam

Virginia v. North Carolina

• January 22, 2021
• SCY
• Chapel Hill, NC
• Dual Meet Format
• Results
• Final Scores
  • Men: UVA 154, UNC 144
  • Women: UVA 174, UNC 121

The University of Virginia Cavaliers are on the road this weekend and taking on a pair of ACC opponents, swimming at UNC today and NC State tomorrow. In today’s action, the Cavalier  women (#1 in our last power rankings) took down the Tar Heels (HM) 174 to 121. The men’s side was closer, coming down to the final relay, but #13 Virginia held off UNC, 154-144.

Women’s Recap

The Cavaliers opened up a lead in the very first event that they’d never relinquish, as both their ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams touched before the Tar Heels’ two squads. Reilly Tiltmann (24.95), Anna Keating (27.98), Kate Douglass (23.19) and Alex Walsh (21.92) got to the wall first with a 1:38.04, although the ‘B’ relay got slightly faster first half splits from Caroline Gmelich (24.79) and Alexis Wenger (27.41), en route to a 1:39.08 finish, while UNC’s ‘A’ relay touched in 1:39.65.

Maddie Donohoe kept UVA moving along with a 10:21.01 victory in the 1000 free, although she was pushed by freshman teammate Quinn Schaedler, who touched just behind at 10:21.25. Donohoe would return toward the end of the session to complete the distance sweep with a 4:52.02 win in the 500 free.

Two other Cavaliers doubled up. Douglass won the 200 free by over 2.5s with a 1:46.51. In the second half of the session, she dropped a 2:08.26 200 breast, winning that event by over three seconds against a trio of teammates who all have been 2:06 or 2:07 this season. Virginia is nearing “2015 Texas men 100 fly” level of depth in this event, as they have four women who have been under 2:08 this season, plus Douglass, who went 2:05.89 at last year’s ACC Championships. It took a 2:08.42 to make the A-final at 2019 NCAAs, so the Cavaliers could conceivably put five “up” in this event. Of course, there’s no guarantee that all five women will swim it in the postseason; Douglass, for instance, also currently holds the fastest time in the nation in the 100 free.

Abby Harter swept the butterfly events with times of 54.31 and 1:58.40 as the third Cavalier woman to earn a double. UVA also got individual wins from Ella Nelson (4:08.14 in the 400 IM), Alex Walsh (1:01.27 in the 100 breast), and Paige Madden (50.13 in the 100 free).

UNC kept things from getting to out of hand by playing to their strengths, namely backstroke and diving. Grace Countie stopped UVA’s initial winning streak by taking the 100 back in 53.11, a time which appears to be her fastest in-season time ever. Sophie Lindner completed the Tar Heel sweep of that discipline later in the session with a 1:56.19 win in the 200 back, and Heidi Lowe added a 23.33 win the 50 free.

The Tar Heels’ lone individual double came on the diving boards, as Aranza Vazquez swept the two events with scores of 337.50/390.08.

With the meet in hand, Virginia left its strongest sprinters on the bench for the final event, the 200 free relay, and UNC took that in 1:31.46, getting a 22.72 leadoff from Countie and a 22.59 split on the third leg by Lowe.

Men’s Recap

It was a much closer race on the men’s side, as the two teams battled back and forth over the course of the session.

UNC took the first event, the 200 medley relay. Tucker Burhans (22.35), Valdas Abaliksta (24.07) and Boyd Poelke (20.85) all outsplit their UVA counterparts, handing anchor Jack Messenger over a one second lead heading into the final leg. UVA’s Matt Brownstead closed hard with a speedy 19.12, but Messenger’s 19.76 was more than enough, as UNC touched first, 1:27.03 to 1:27.41.

The two teams split the next events right down the middle. UVA’s Jack Walker won the 1000 free in 9:19.63, then UNC countered with 2020 ACC bronze medalist Tomas Sungalia‘s 1:38.02 victory in the 200 free.

UVA came right back, as Justin Grender won the 100 back in 48.23. Then UNC took the next two events, courtesy of a speedy 53.34 in the 100 breast by Valdas Abaliksta, the 2020 ACC runner-up, and then a 1:46.96 by freshman Boyd Poelke.

Brownstead put the Cavaliers back in the win column with a 19.91 in the 50 free, and UNC led 67-64 heading into the first break.

UNC kept piling up the points during the diving events, as Anton Down-Jenkins led 1-4 sweeps in both the 1m and 3m.

It turned out to be a day of repeat winners, as five of the six men who won events in the first half of the meet doubled up the second half.

UVA got the second half going with back-to-back wins, thanks to Brownstead’s 44.47 in the 100 free and Grender’s 1:44.91 in the 200 back. The two sides would alternate victories in the remainder of the individual events. Abaliksta completed the breaststroke sweep with a 1:56.86 in the 200, then Walker finished the distance sweep with a 4:27.06 in the 500 free, the event in which he was the 2020 ACC runner-up, followed by Poelke wrapping the fly sweep with a 1:46.96 in that 200. UVA’s Casey Storch took the last individual event, the 400 IM, with a 3:50.97, giving UVA the narrowest of leads, 141-140, as the two teams prepared for the final event, the 200 free relay.

Presumably amped by the moment, Brownstead improved on his individual 50 free time to lead off in 19.73, and while UNC kept it reasonably close, August Lamb (20.03), Konnar Klinksiek (19.99) and Grender (19.66) combined for a 1:19.41 to take the event and seal the meet victory. UNC got a pair of sub-20 splits from Messenger (19.81) and Sungalia (19.73), en route to a 1:20.09.

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