Every piece seemed to fall into place Saturday afternoon against North Carolina for the men's swimming and diving team. Energy was high as No. 22 Carolina fell to the No. 17 Cavalier men 161-137. While the men remained undefeated in the ACC this season, the No. 20 women suffered their first ACC loss to No. 17 Carolina 182-118.
The split meet with the Tar Heels followed a dominating performance against Duke Friday night from both the men's and women's teams. In the team's first home meet in over two months, the Virginia men outscored the Blue Devils 126-100, while the women toppled Duke 126.5-110.5.
Fresh off the heels of that meet, the swim team returned to the Aquatics and Fitness Center Saturday prepared to continue its ACC winning streak. The men's team held an eight-year dual-meet winning streak against the Tar Heels coming into Saturday, whereas the women's team was looking for their third straight dual-meet win against Carolina.
"When I walked in, there was an immense amount of energy from all of us," freshman Mei Christensen said. "We were all so excited to be able to swim Carolina as a team, and we all knew we had to do our best in order to beat them."
Over the course of the first 11 events for the men's team, the Cavaliers and the Tar Heels matched each other, but a powerhouse 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard breast event put Virginia firmly back on course.
The consensus best performance of the afternoon came from Virginia senior John Millen in the 1000 free. With 250 yards to go, Millen continued to trail Carolina's Chip Peterson, a world champion open-water swimmer. Millen responded with a sprint that allowed him to finish with a season-best time of 9:07.01, beating out Peterson by 1.62 seconds.
"That will go down in Virginia swimming annals as one of the greatest swims ever for a Virginia swimmer," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "To me, he won the meet for us in that race."
Other men earning multiple individual wins in addition to Millen (1000 free and 500 free) included junior Pat Mellors (200 free and 200 IM), senior Vanja Rogulj (100 breast and 200 breast) and junior Stefan Hirniak (200 butterfly and 100 butterfly).
On the women's side, an early lead generated by the Tar Heels, who won six of the eight events, made it difficult for the Virginia women to come back. To add to the blow, Carolina achieved an effective victory in the 200 free with a 1-2-3 finish, pushing the Cavaliers further into the hole.
Christensen took the accolades of lead performer against the Tar Heels, taking two individual wins in the 100 back and 200 back. Additionally, Christensen recorded a relay win in the 200 medley relay along with freshman Katherine McDonnell, junior Stephanie Glover and junior Jess Lewis. Glover took one of the only other Virginia wins of the meet in the 100 butterfly. Lewis took the other in the 100 free.
The Carolina and Duke meets mark another spot on the way to the ACC championships Feb. 14-17. The women's team faces three meets between now and that time, while the men have only two.
Both the men's and the women's teams return to action Jan. 28 at Pittsburgh.
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