CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In their first meet as newly-named ASUN competitors, the Queens men's and women's swimming & diving teams took on a powerful UNC Chapel Hill squad in the first home meet of the season. The women were defeated by a score of 180-77 while the men fell to a score of 148.5-111.5.
"It was an amazing atmosphere swimming in front of a record crowd," Head Coach Jeff Dugdale said of the meet. "We had an excellent mix of good swims from both our veterans and our freshman. We are starting to see the depth on our women, which is rewarding after an excellent recruiting year last year. Our goal was to swim into shape in September then race into shape in October. We are in a good place heading to Davidson tomorrow."
With 28 total events on the docket, five different members of the Royals team accounted for six individual-event wins. For the women, freshman Abigail Zboran made her mark in her first appearance as a Royal with a first-place time of 2:06.21 in the 200 yard IM.
UNC took home 19 individual-event wins (including a tie-finish in the men's 100-yard breaststroke).
For the men, Matej Dusa had himself a triumphant day with individual wins in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle with times of 19.66 and 44.67, respectively. Andreas Marz finished the 200 yard backstroke in first with a time of 1:49.64 while Daniel Meszaros finished in the first-place spot in the 500 yard freestyle event with a time of 4:39.12. Additionally, Noah Beladi finished in a first-place tie with a time of 55.75 in the men's 100-yard breaststroke event.
In the relay events, the Royals found immense success in front of a vivacious crowd. For the women, the team of Danielle Melilli, Ryley Heck, Maddie Foster, and Libby Livesay finished with a winning time of 1:35.07 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. For the men, the team of Dusa, Meszaros, Nien Levy, and Conner Wang tallied a first-place time in the 200-yard freestyle relay of 1:20.30.
"Our season and home opener was a huge success for our program," Associate Head Coach Jon Lau said. "We had one of the largest spectator crowds that we've ever had at our pool which sent the energy level of the meet through the roof. UNC's program is amongst the best competition in the country. Our team embraced our training plan of using our September and October meets to race into shape. Today's performances were a strong step forward as we look toward our next meets."
The Tar Heels took the first two relay-events, the 400-yard medley relays, by a time of 3:39.39 by their women (Greer Pattison, Katie Pavicevic, Ellie Vannote, Delaney Carlton) and by a time of 3:15.56 by their men (Walker Davis, Ben Delmar, Boyd Polka, Patrick Hussey). The Royals men's team of Marz, Balazs Berecz, Dusa, and Frantisek Jablcnik came in less than two seconds of the UNC frontrunners in the event with a time of 3:17.00.
Up next, the Royals will compete on Saturday, Sep. 30 at Davidson College to face the Wildcats for an 11:00 AM start.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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