Feb. 28, 2002

Results

COLLEGE PARK, MD. - The North Carolina men's swimming and diving team is tied for second place after the first day of the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships being held at the University of Maryland's Campus Recreation Center Natatorium.

The Tar Heels are tied with Georgia Tech with 158 points after the first night of competition which included six of the 20 events in the meet. Three-time defending ACC champion Virginia has taken a commanding lead with 284 after day one. Florida State is fourth with 120 points, Clemson fifth with 119 points, Maryland sixth with 93 points, NC State seventh with 61 points and Duke eighth with two points.

Carolina's top finisher Thursday night was senior Kevin Erndl who finished second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.08 seconds. That time barely missed the school record of 20.08 seconds that Erndl shares with Tod Schroeder. Freshman Eddy Matkovich finished eighth in the 50-yard freestyle at 20.61 and junior Michael Chenier was 13th in 20.79. Other Tar Heels in the event were sophomore Justin Donato who was 18th in 21.07 and sophomore Dan Vick who finished 22nd in 21.34.

In the 500-yard freestyle all five Tar Heels improved their times in the evening over their prelim swims. Sophomore Yuri Suguiyama took ninth place in a time of 4:26.26 while junior Stephen Mohr was 11th in 4:29.17. Freshman Reid Owen swam a career best to finish 18th in 4:30.49, senior Seth Laughlin was 19th in 4:31.81 and freshman Eric Mohr also swam a career best to finish 20th in 4:33.44.

Senior Chris Helin took fifth place in the 200-yard individual medley as he swam the event in 1:48.57. Junior Sean Quinn finished 14th in 1:51.13, sophomore Casey Coble was 17th in 1:51.69, freshman Griff Helfrich was 21st in 1:53.76 and freshman John Hartmann 22nd in 1:54.64. In the one-meter diving competition, sophomore Eric Poitras was fifth with 280.55 points, junior Stephen Krebs sixth with 276.10 points and junior Rob McMillen 12th with 224.90 points.

The Tar Heels finished third in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:21.24. The relay consisted of Erndl (20.17), Chenier (20.33), senior Kert Johnson (20.57) and Donato (20.17). Carolina was fourth in the 400-yard medley relay which consisted of Johnson (50.15), Quinn (54.94), Matkovich (48.28) and Erndl (44.68).