Georgia @ North Carolina (Men & Women)
The Georgia Bulldogs will travel to face North Carolina on Friday, October 22, at 11 AM Eastern Time. This will be out first chance to see the Georgia men’s and women’s squads this season, and North Carolina is coming off of a pair of resounding victories over East Carolina.
On the men’s side, the race of the meet will be the butterfly showdown between North Carolina’s Tommy Wyher and Georgia’s Mark Dylla. Last year at NCAA’s, Wyher finished tied for 5th at 46.05, with Dylla one spot back at 46.07. The two are among the favorites to medal at NCAA’s this season, and this should be a great early season race.
This meet should be a barn burner between two teams who should be battling it out for a top-10 finish at NCAA’s. I’d expect Georgia’s depth to pull them through this meet, but North Carolina could certainly win the relays to nudge them towards a victory.
In the women’s meet, Georgia is a favorite to finish in the top 5 at NCAA’s, but North Carolina will surprise many people with their depth. The medley relay could be a great showdown here, as both squads return great lineups. The potential matchups here could be Megan Romano, Michelle McKeehan, Morgan Scroggy, and Allison Schmitt for Georgia versus Carly Smith, Laura Moriarty, Katie Nolan, and Rebecca Kane for Carolina.
Live results for the meet should be available at http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/livestats/c-swim/
Boston College @ Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Chicago/Wheaton College
Boston College will travel to face Wisconsin Milwaukee on Friday at 4PM Central Time.
The Boston College men are coming off of a disappointing season where they were only able to finish ahead of Miami at the ACC-Championships, though Miami fields only divers on the men’s side. This year, they are 3-2, including wins over Stony Brook and Fairfield (CT.). They are led by John Maloy, who has season bests of 4:42.7 in the 500 and 1:55.7 in the 200 IM.
The BC women finished dead last at ACC’s in 2010, and are led by backstroker Megan Hennessey.
The UW-M men’s and women’s squads both enter the meet at 2-1, including their most recent wins over Valparaiso. The women’s squad is led by sophomore Maggi Beck, who last year sent freshman records in both the 200 and 400 IM’s. They will also bring in senior star Danielle Wegner, who smashed the school (and Horizon League) records in all three distance freestyles (500, 1000, 1650) last season, including a 16:36.05 in the mile, en route to being named the Conference Swimmer of the Year.
The men’s squad is on a serious uptick thanks to consecutive impressive classes that broke nearly all of the freshman school records and most of the overall school records. This includes sophomore Zachary Kraii, who went a 4:29/15:50 in the 500 and the mile, and has a good chance at qualifying for the NCAA Championships this year. Expect a UW-M sweep.
BC will also travel to Chicago on Sunday morning for a tri-meet with Division 3 opponents the University of Chicago and Wheaton College
Maryland @ NC State
The Maryland Men and Women will travel to swim against North Carolina State on Friday at 2 Eastern Time.
For Maryland, this will be the first official NCAA meet for both squads, though they’ve swum an intrasquad and hosted a USA-Swimming invitational. North Carolina State’s men & women both are 1-0 after season-opening victories VMI and Campbell, respectively.
The Maryland women are a rising squad that finished 4th in the ACC last season, including placing all 5 relays in the top 5 at that meet. The race of the meet on the women’s side will be a senior showdown of Ann Fittin for Maryland and Ashley Richter for North Carolina State in the 50 free. In that event, they finished 4th and 5th, respectively, at the ACC Championships last year.
On the men’s side, the race to watch is a backstroke showdown between Ivan Kopas of North Carolina State, who has already gone a 200 back time in the school’s top 10 All-Time early in this season, and Andrew Relihan of Maryland, who was 10th at the ACC Championships in the same event last year. The Maryland men graduated a lot of the power, whereas NC State returns a very young core.
I see this one as a split. The Maryland women should win with a good cushion, and the NC State men will win a nailbiter.
Miami (W)/Florida Gulf Coast (W)/Florida A&M (M) @ Florida State
The Miami and FGCU women, and Florida A&M men, will travel to visit Florida State at 10 AM Eastern Time on Saturday.
Florida State has had a very busy season already, including taking second in the All-Florida invite on both the men’s and women’s sides, and sweeping dual meets over, among others, FIU, FAU, and most recently Nova Southeastern. Florida State has effectively swum against most of the state of Florida already this season, and that trend will continue on Saturday.
Neither of these meets will be all that close, with Florida State expecting to dominate both, but there are a few swimmers to watch. The Florida State women have a very deep distance crew, led by sophomore Marissa Harrington who placed 28th in the mile last season. She is one of the better y0ung distance swimmers in the nation. Also watch out for Stephanie Sarandos, who was 13th in the 200 back at NCAA’s last season and has the second best time in the ACC (2:00.56) this season.
Thee tight meet will be between the Miami Hurricanes and FGCU women, who were 3rd and 4th, respectively, at the All-Florida invite.
This meet will also be the season debut for Robert Holderness, who missed the first few weeks while representing Wales at the Commonwealth Games in India. There, he placed 6th in the 200 breaststroke in a career best time of 2:11.85. This converts to a 1:53.12, which is easily the best time in the nation, and NCAA “A” cut, and would have won NCAA’s last year. Now Holderness doesn’t have to worry about tapering again until the NCAA Championships, since he has already qualified, which will give him a big leg-up come March.
Other Meets on the Weekend Schedule
Virginia Tech @ Penn State (Big Ten) 11 Eastern Time
Davidson @ NC State Noon Eastern Time
Maryland @ Duke Saturday, 1 Eastern Time
Florida Atlantic, Western Kentucky @ Georgia Tech TBA Live Results
