The University of Georgia men and women took on the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to kickoff a weekend of competitions which ends Saturday with a dual meet against North Carolina State.
The Georgia men and women both beat the respective UNC teams. The men putting up 155 points to UNC’s 145, the women generating 164 to take down UNC who had 136.
MEN
200 Medley Relay
The UNC men came swinging right out of the gates, taking the first event, the 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:27.74. The Georgia team which featured Nic Fink finished second well behind the Tar Heels in 1:28.58.
The Georgia relay had Pace Clark swimming the fly leg. Clark will most likely be the swimmer to replace Doug Reynolds who finished eighth last season at NCAA’s in the 100 fly and took control of the fly portions on Georgia’s medley relays.
1000 Free
The 1000 free saw Litherland vs Litherland as Jay and Kevin battled it out to the wall as it came right down tot he touch. Kevin ended up winning the event just ahead of his brother in 9:12.57, Jay ultimately grabbing second in 9:12.65.
With a 1-2 finish for Georgia, Henry Campbell from UNC snuck in the claim the bronze behind the two brothers in 9:19.44.
200 Free
Matias Koski won the 200 freestyle to no surprise, touching the wall in 1:37.44. The fast in-season time was enough to beat teammates Alec Cohen and Kevin Litherland. Cohen finished second behind Koski in 1:39.10 leaving Litherland with the bronze in 1:39.79.
The 1-2-3 finish for Georgia shows their potential in the 4×200 free relay. Young freestyler Kevin Litherland is showing early on that as a freshman he can be competitive collegiately.
100 Back
UNC came home with their first individual victory as Nic Graesser and Patrick Myers made it a 1-2 finish for the Tar Heels. Graesser, the winner of the race, touched the wall in 48.22 almost a full second ahead of his teammate Myers who finished held off Georgia’s Taylor Dale to solidify the 1-2 finish for UNC with a 49.18.
Dale rounded out the top three with a 49.21.
100 Breast
The 100 breast gave Nic Fink a chance to shine and shine he did. Fink swam a 54.26 which isn’t a bad in-season swim for him. He finished over a second ahead of Kurt Wohlrab from UNC who touched the wall in 55.71.
Young breaststroke and IM swimmer Gunnar Bentz from Georgia clocked in at 55.92 for third. Considering that his personal best is a 55.00, it seems as though he’s improving with college swimming early in his first season.
200 Fly
Chase Kalisz of Georgia and Ben Colley of UNC battled it out in the 200 fly as if it were the championship final of the NCAAs. Kalisz ended up winning the event in 1:43.78, a time which was even faster than what he swam at the 2014 NCAAs to finish 23rd.
The 1:43.78 would’ve been fast enough to get him an eighth place finish at NCAA’s last season, although it wouldn’t have been fast enough to make the A or B final.
Colley finished second behind Kalisz in 1:44.34, Mick Litherland of Georgia was third behind him in 1:47.03.
50 Free
Sam Lewis of UNC who anchored the winning 200 medley relay won the 50 free in 20.31. He had a little bit of room as Georgia’s Michael Trice finished second a little ways back in 20.60. Third was UNC’s Logan Heck in 20.63.
100 Free
Matias Koski came home with another win, taking down Logan Heck who finished third in the 50 freestyle, with a 44.39. Heck was second in 44.91.
Koski swam a decent 200 freestyle considering the time of the season, and his 100 time backed it right up. For the middle of fall, Koski is swimming decently fast which is a good sign for Georgia relays.
200 Back
Ty Stewart who racked up a few points with a 10th place finish at NCAAs in the 200 back last season came home hard to win the 200 back here in 1:46.34. Patrick Myers of UNC was second behind him in 1:47.03 followed by Georgia’s Jay Litherland in 1:47.95.
200 Breast
Georgia’s breaststroke king Nic Fink got taken down in the 200 breaststroke, and surprisingly it was by teammate Chase Kalisz. The two swimmers both put up some fairly impressive times, Kalisz touching the wall in 1:57.48, Fink in 1:57.81.
Gunnar Bentz kept up with the two Georgia stars to make it a 1-2-3 Georgia sweep. Bentz finished the race in 1:59.88, just over two seconds behind Fink.
500 Free
Matias Koski came into the wall in 4:23.38 to win his third gold of the evening and post yet another speedy freestyle time. UNC’s Henry Campbell who finished third in the 1000 free ended up finishing behind Koski to come second in 4:27.23.
Kevin Litherland who already proved that he’s in stellar shape, threw down a 4:29.20 to round out the top three.
100 Fly
UNC sprinter Sam Lewis added another gold to his pallet with a 47.35 win in the 100 fly. Second was his teammate Ben Colley who clocked in at 47.85.
The two were the only swimmers under 48 seconds as Ty Stewart of Georgia touched the wall for third with a time of 48.53. Stewart beat teammate Pace Clark in the process, although Clark did get the fly spot on the 200 medley relay earlier in the meet.
400 IM
Chase Kalisz won his signature event, the 400 IM, to give him his third win of the evening. His time of 3:50.38 was an extremely solid in-season swim.
Following him was teammate Gunnar Bentz. Bentz was able to put together a 3:51.66 to stay with the American record holder. That time for the freshman is an incredible in-season swim for him and points him in the direction of scoring some points for Georgia at NCAAs in the event.
400 Free Relay
UNC won the second relay and last event of the night, putting together a 2:58.41 in the 4×100 freestyle relay. The relay which featured Logan Heck, Sam Lewis, Nic Graesser and Ben Colley took down the Georgia boys who finished second in 2:59.18.
Diving
The Georgia men seemed to be at a loss with the diving events as UNC finished 1-2-3 in both the 1 meter and 3 meter events. John Nyquist of UNC was the winner of both.
Ian Forlini of Georgia ended up finishing fourth in the 1 meter event, which was his best finish of the night.
WOMEN
200 Medley Relay
Much like the men, the UNC women attempted to take control on Georgia early by winning the 200 medley relay. The UNC team of Hellen Moffitt, Catherine Munch, Hannah Lincoln, and Sarah Hitchens put up a time of 1:40.45 to beat Georgia’s 1:41.79.
Georgia put together a team of Olivia Smoliga, Emily Cameron, Lauren Harrington, and Chantal Van Landeghem to finish second behind UNC.
1000 Free
In the first individual event of the night however it was Brittany MacLean of Georgia who came home with a swift 9:43.09 to win the event. Second behind her was teammate Amber McDermott who clocked in well behind MacLean at 9:50.14.
200 Free
The 200 freestyle looked to be one of the fastest of the night and Danielle Silverling made that happen. Silverling, a UNC swimmer, took the event home in a 1:47.01 to take down both Jordan Mattern and Brittany MacLean of Georgia.
The time is extremely impressive considering that when Silverling finished 14th at NCAAs last season, she was only a 1:45.06 making the 1:47 an amazing in-season time for her.
Jordan Mattern touched behind her in 1:47.83, and MacLean, who just finished swimming and winning the 1000 freestyle, ended up taking the bronze with a time of 1:47.91.
100 Back
Kylie Stewart gave Georgia veteran Olivia Smoliga a run for her money in the 100 back, and ultimately came home with a win. Stewart touched the wall in 53.64, a very fast in-season swim, to claim gold and take down her teammate.
Smoliga finished second far behind Stewart in 54.94.
100 Breast
Rachel Canty of UNC won the 100 breast in a swift 1:02.91. Catherine Munch, who swam the breaststroke leg on the winning medley relay, made it a 1-2 finish for UNC as she clocked in at 1:02.99 to take the silver.
Behind Canty was Georgia’s star breaststroker Annie Zhu who finished not far behind Munch in 1:03.07.
200 Fly
Hali Flickinger of Georgia showed no ease in the 200 fly throwing down a fantastic in-season time of 1:57.16. That time isn’t that far off of the 1:54.76 she swam to finish 6th at NCAAs last season considering where in this season she is.
Emma Nunn of UNC almost swam very quickly, touching in at 1:57.90. Behind her was Georgia’s Megan Kingsley who rounded out the top three with a 1:59.27.
50 Free
One of Georgia’s golden Canadian girls, Chantal Van Landeghem, took home a win in the 50 freestyle with a 22.71 over teammate Madeline Locus’ 22.82. Third was Sarah Hitchens behind the two in 23.09.
100 Free
Chantal Van Landeghem proved to be the sprint queen here in Chapel Hill, bringing a dual sprint win as she took the 100 freestyle as well in 49.90.
Van Landeghem was the only swimmer under 50 seconds in the race as Allyn Hardesh of UNC took the silver medal over a second behind her in 51.06. Madeline Locus of Georgia came third behind Hardesh in 51.08, just barely being out-touched.
200 Back
Kylie Stewart added a backstroke win over Hali Flickinger by taking the 200 backstroke title in 1:55.01. Her time was such a good in-season swim that it would have gotten her a spot in the B-final at the 2014 NCAA Championships.
Flickinger, who finished second behind her, also had a great swim with a 1:56.78 finish. Annie Harrison of UNC was third in 1:58.80.
200 Breast
Annie Zhu came home for gold in the 200 breast clocking in at 2:14.36 to win by a sizable margin over Catherine Munch of UNC. Munch finished behind Zhu in 2:17.20, holding off Gerogia’s Emily Cameron who came in for third in 2:17.36.
500 Free
The 500 free proved to be just as exciting as the 200, with Amber McDermott coming home this time to win the event in 4:47.59. MacLean followed McDermott to the wall with a 4:47.70 to take second.
Third was Danielle Silverling of UNC who won the 200 free, touching in a 4:51.23 for bronze.
100 Fly
Sarah Koucheki of UNC won the 100 fly in 54.97. Her teammates followed suit and made it a 1-2-3 sweep for UNC as Hellen Moffitt and Megan Bestor finished behind her. Moffitt clocked in at 55.27 with Bestor squeezing in at 55.55.
400 IM
Amber McDermott added some more racing yardage, and another win after just taking gold in the 500 freestyle. McDermott touched the wall in 4:13.47 to win the 400 IM over Hali Flickinger. That was Flickinger’s second silver of the night as she added to her medal tally which included one gold.
McDermott’s time of 4:15.02 was good enough to take down Annie Zhu who made it a 1-2-3 Georgia victory with a 4:18.53.
400 Free Relay
The 400 Free relay went to Georgia over UNC. The team, which included sprinting star Chantal Van Landeghem clocked in a 3:21.23 to win the event over UNC who finshed in 3:22.08.
Diving
The two UNC girls Michole Timm and Elissa Dawson dominated the diving portion of the competition as Timm took gold in the 1 meter and Dawson won the 3 meter. Coming in third in both events was Olivia Ball from Georgia.
Full meet results can be found here.
Bentz’s fly split on the medley relay was within .1 of Clark’s, so I’m not sure that spot is anywhere close to being settled yet.
Gunnar Bentz is on my “watch list” of future stars since 2010 so I watch his progression closely year after year. I continue to think 4 years later that he’s still a monster with an amazing potential. But I also think we are still far, 4 years later, from seeing his true potential.
He’s much more a long course swimmer and it’s a good thing for his international future. But I’m curious to see if during his college years he can add a few pounds of muscle to his long body built for swimming. When he’ll have more power and a much better backstroke, he will be very tough to beat in the IM events in my opinion. The… Read more »
Kalisz 3:50, Bentz 3:51, Literland 3:52. What an incredible IM group. If Chase isn’t careful, he might find himself losing to someone on his own team next year.
Impressive swim by Chase Kalisz in the 200 fly! 1.43 so early in the season! Wow!
I’m impressed by Kylie Stewart’s times on backstroke.
Very good day for Miss Flickinger too.
Ben Colley. Beast. You want to talk about a kid improving like crazy. He was 1:50 at this time last year in the 200 fly. I have him as dark horse to win at NCAA’s
Apparently Kalisz is going to drop over 2 seconds in the 2 Fly to beat the defending NCAA Champion/NCAA Record Holder that doesn’t appear to be slowing down. He’s good, and 1:43 is really fast at any point, let alone this early, but remember he did the same thing last year. I have a hard time believing he will be 1:39.5 or better in the 200 Fly this year; and more than likely, he’ll have to be that to win. He’s got a great chance at winning both IMs (400 is a lock), but the 200 Fly doesn’t look very good.
If Kalisz hits the 200 Fly on the last day he can very well win 3 events at NCAA’s. Koski and the stellar group of freshman boys looked great today!
Haha sure….he will beat the guy who went 1:39.3 last year…right
Koski was stud in the meet too with 3 wins and pretty good times right now. Lots of talent on both the men’s and women’s teams