Auburn Women, North Carolina Men Earn Victories in Tight Dual Meet
Auburn made the trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., Friday afternoon to face off against the North Carolina Tar Heels, and a pair of competitive dual meets ended with victories for the Tiger women, 154-146, and the UNC men, 169-131.
The meet began with a 200 medley relay that came down to less than four tenths. Auburn’s Abigail Gibbons provided the difference-making split with her 23.50 butterfly leg. She and teammates Lora Komoroczy, Stasya Makarova and Lexie Mulvihill finished in 1:36.01.
Auburn’s Julia Strojnowska finished first in the 1000 freestyle in 9:47.98, and she later claimed the 500 free as well, clocking 4:45.70. Koromorczy won the 100 backstroke in 51.83, and she doubled up in the 100 butterfly (52.50). Mulvihill took first in the 50 free in 22.28, followed by Audrey Crawford coming from behind to win the the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.85. Kyleigh Kidd scored an upset win over Aranza Vazquez Montano, the two-time defending national champion on both springboard events, in the 3-meter event (298.28).
The meet came down to the final relay, with the team of Nevmovenko, Lisa Klevanovich, Kate Murray and Mulvihill swimming a time of 3:14.61 to win the 400 free relay by four tenths.
For the Tar Heels, Georgia Nel overtook Auburn’s Polina Nevmovenko to win the 200 free, 1:45.46 to 1:45.62. Nel won again in the 100 free (48.77). Skyler Smith clocked 59.22 for the win in the 100 breaststroke, followed by Mary Macaulay winning the 200 fly in 1:56.98. Macaulay later added a second win in the 200 IM (1:59.58). Emma Karam claimed the 200 back in 1:55.22, and Vazquez Montano scored 327.45 on 1-meter to win that event.
The North Carolina men stated out their upset win by taking the 200 medley relay by almost a second. Walker Davis, Xavier Ruiz, Boyd Poelke and Louis Dramm got the win in 1:24.30. Patrick Hussey followed that with a win in the 200 free (1:35.26), and he won again in the 500 free (4:21.55).
Ben Delmar swept the breaststroke events, clocking 52.75 in the 100 and 1:54.03 over 200 yards. Seb Lunak finished ahead of the pack in the 200 fly (1:43.10), followed by Poelke leading a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 fly in 46.51. Dramm clocked 1:44.13 to win the 200 IM. The team of Hussey, PJ Foy, Matthew Van Deusen and Lunak topped off the win in come-from-behind fashion as they won the 200 free relay in 2:54.12.
Mason Mathias won the 1000 free for Auburn in 9:07.32, and Nate Stoffle topped the 100 back (46.01) and 200 back (1:41.94). Kalle Makinen sprinted away from the field in the 50 free (19.34) and 100 free (43.01), and diving wins belonged to Ethan Swart on 1-meter (324.68) and 3-meter (380.55).