The Virginia men's and women's swimming and diving teams set off Friday for North Carolina. There they will compete in two meets over the weekend, Friday against Duke and Saturday versus North Carolina. Last year, the men's victory over Duke extended their ACC winning streak to five years. The women in turn took their first meet again North Carolina in two years. There's one key difference between the meets last year and this year though: Last year, for Virginia, the two meets were at home.
While traveling is always tough, Virginia doesn't seemed to be fazed by the challenges that being on the road can pose; this season at least, the swimmers have a better record away than at home. The record may be slightly skewed because the Cavaliers have been facing some very difficult opponents at home, but doing better away is something sophomore Pat Mellors certainly can understand.
"I'm actually better away than I am at home for some reason," Mellors said. "I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it, but that's just been my history as far as dual meets go."
Mellors has reason to be slightly confused by his record. Hostile environments and crowds aside, having to compete right after a trip is never an easy thing.
"We mostly drive everywhere," senior Fran Crippen said. "And this weekend we'll be on the bus for five, six, hours, and then we'll get off and we'll swim in a meet against Duke."
Part of the reason Virginia may handle this so well is that for most of the team -- even the freshmen -- traveling is nothing new. Many of the team members traveled when they were in high school, and some had traveled as far as Australia before they came to the University. While traveling can have its downsides, getting the opportunity to visit other countries certainly has been advantageous for Virginia swimmers. Mellors, for example, traveled to Turkey last summer for the World University Games.
"It was a great experience." Mellors said. "It was an entirely different area of the world that I had never been before."
During that trip though, Mellors had more to worry about than just whether his trend of swimming faster away from home would continue.
"Before I went I guess some groups were bombing areas," Mellors said. "So in that respect I was a little nervous about going and some people had pulled out of going on the trip, but I made the decision that --- and a lot of other people did too
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