CHAPEL HILL, N.C. –– The depth of the nationally-ranked North Carolina swimming and diving teams led to the Tar Heels defeating Navy, Saturday morning in Chapel Hill, N.C.
 
The men's meet saw the 22^nd-ranked Tar Heels (2-2) defeat the Mids (10-3), 160-140, and in the women's contest the No. 16 Tar Heels (3-1) topped the Mids (10-2), 163-131.
 
"It was a very exciting meet today," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  "We were happy with the way we competed from start to finish."
 
"It was a great learning experience to be back in Chapel Hill and race a really strong North Carolina team," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "Being the first racing in over a month, we came out a little flat at the start of the meet.  We were proud of the fight we displayed in the second half."
 
The two men's team nearly split the 16 contested events as the Tar Heels recorded nine wins and the Mids won seven events.  After North Carolina won the opening 200 medley relay, Navy won each of the next three and four of the next five races.  That run started with Luke Johnson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) winning the 1000 freestyle by 12 seconds with his clocking of 9:15.92.  Daniel Cook (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Jack Dunworth (Jr., Austin, Texas) then finished first (1:39.36) and second (1:39.87), respectively, in the 200 freestyle. 
 
Caleb Mauldin (So., Chesapeake, Va.) followed by winning the 100 backstroke by two-hundredths of a second with his effort of 49.44.  North Carolina would win the next event, the 100 breaststroke, then Micah Oh (Jr., Millersville, Md.) led a 1-2-3-4 Navy finish in the 200 fly.  Oh won the race with a time of 1:49.72.
 
"We built an early lead through the first half of the meet and North Carolina, to their credit, came back really well in the second half," said Roberts.
 
North Carolina won the next seven events to build some separation from Navy.  Included in that span were Johnson being edged for the win in the 500 free by 15-hundredths of a second and Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) placing second in three-meter diving by just five points.  Buchter would go on to win the one-meter board by four points with a score of 361.20.  The last individual event of the meet saw Ethan Tack (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.) win the 200 individual medley in a time of 1:51.08.
 
The final event of the meet, the men's 400 freestyle relay, may have been the best one of the entire dual.  Navy's team trailed by eight-tenths of a second through the first half of the race.  Dunworth was the third Mid to enter the water and he brought Navy back to within five-hundredths of a second.  Dominick Wallace (Jr., La Jolla, Calif.) cut the deficit down to three-hundredths of a second after 50 yards, then he posted a time of 23.71 over his last length of the pool to give Navy the victory by two-hundredths of a second.  In all, the Mids won the race with a time of 3:00.25.
 
"I was extremely pleased that we didn't back down after North Carolina's run of success," said Roberts.  "Our individual medley swimmers did a good job to bring some momentum back to us heading into the relay, which turned out to be a terrific way to end the meet."
 
Navy's women's team totaled six second-place finishes during the meet.  Erin Scudder (Sr., Western Springs, Ill.) placed second in the 1000 free (10:14.55) and 500 free (5:00.98), Sydney Harrington (Sr., Boca Raton, Fla.) finished in second place in the 200 fly (2:01.05) and 100 fly (54.35), Jamie Miller (Sr., Rochester Hills, Mich.) was the runner-up in the 200 backstroke (2:01.24) and Meghan Gerdes (Jr., Spring, Texas) took the silver medal on the three-meter diving board (298.73).
 
"Erin and Sydney each raced really well after our winter training camp," said Morrison.  "We are excited to now have three weeks to prepare for our next meet and the start of our championship meet season."
 
"I was happy and proud of the way we competed today," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald.  "It is always tough to compete in a new environment, especially when the competition is so strong.  All of our divers did some good things today.  It was big for Meghan to pull out second place and Bradley to earn the win."
 
The Navy diving teams will play host to the Navy Diving Invitational Friday through Sunday in Annapolis.  The Navy men's team as a whole will close its dual meet season by playing host to Columbia on Jan. 31, and the Navy women's team will next by in action the following day when it takes part in the Navy Invitational in Annapolis.