July 30, 2008

• DeSelm Talks UNC Swimming & Diving

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.--The University of North Carolina men's and women's swimming and diving teams continued their outstanding swimming Wednesday at the U.S. Open at the University of Minnesota's Aquatics Center.

Five Tar Heels qualified to swim in Wednesday night's finals.

Sophomore Tyler Harris was the highest of UNC's finishers in the evening finals and in the process set a new school long course record in the 400-meter individual medley. Harris clocked a 4:21.94 to finish ninth in the event overall and first in the "B" final. The previous school record was 4:21.99, also held by Harris, which he swam at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials.

In the "C" final of the 400-meter IM, sophomore Joe Kinderwater finished 21st in 4:31.03 and sophomore Chip Peterson was 22nd in 4:31.34.

Erika Erndl swam in the "B" final of the 100-yard freestyle and finished 11th with a time of 56.26. In the "C" final of the 200-meter backstroke, junior Jeff James placed 21st in a time of 2:05.06.

Here is a summary of the results from Wednesday's preliminaries.

Men's 400-Meter Individual Medley
Tyler Harris, 9th place, 4:25.32
Chip Peterson, 17th place, 4:29.01, new career best, previous best was 4:31.32
Joe Kinderwater, 23rd place, 4:30.83
Andy Brake, 29th place, 4:32.36

Women's 100-Meter Freestyle
Erika Erndl, 12th place, 56.31

Women's 200-Meter Backstroke
Ashley Howard, 37th place, 2:18.90

Men's 200-Meter Backstroke
Jeff James, 19th place, 2:04.71, new career best, previous best was 2:05.55

Reed Wins YMCA National Championship In 50-Meter Freestyle

In other UNC swimming news, incoming Tar Heel freshman Evan Reed won the YMCA national championship Monday night in the 50-meter freestyle at the University of Maryland's Aquatics Center in College Park, Md. Reed had a winning time of 23.66 seconds.

Reed will also swim in the championships later in the week in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events. He is the top seed in both of those events.