Auburn and UNC Split Dual Meet As Women's Meet Comes Down To The Final Relay

Oct 28, 2024

The Auburn and UNC women tied at #17 in our September power rankings and the meet between the Tigers and the Tar Heels came down to the final relay.

Auburn’s relays have been their tentpole for the past couple of seasons and that’s held strong—especially for the women—in the early going of the season as they claimed the opening 200 medley relay to get the meet started strong, then won the 400 freestyle relay to clinch the victory.

In the 200 medley relay, Auburn’s Lora Komoroczy (23.87), Stasya Makarova (26.87), Abigail Gibbons (23.50), and Lexie Mulvihill (21.77) swam a season-best 1:36.01, defeating UNC’s Greer Pattison (23.96), Skyler Smith (26.74), Elizabeth Sowards (23.84), and Georgia Nel (21.84) by .37 seconds to open the swimming portion of the meet.

Julia Strojnowska gave Auburn a win in the very next race, the 1000 freestyle, swimming a 9:47.98 to win and climb up the program’s all-time rankings to ninth. Strojnowska, a freshman from Canada, swept the distance races with a 4:45.70 in the 500 freestyle.

Multiple freshmen were key for Auburn in this win. Not only did Stroknowksa win two events, but Komoroczy, another international freshman, picked up the win in the 100 backstroke, swimming 51.83 to move up to eighth-fastest in Auburn history. Later, she won the 100 butterfly as well, swimming 52.50. Audrey Crawford followed her three PBs at the SMU Classic by lowering her bests in the 100/200 breast for the second time this season in 1:01.95/2:10.85. She won the 200 breast and moved to tenth-fastest in Auburn history.

Nel gave the Tar Heels their first win in the 200 freestyle, coming from behind on the final 50 yards to get her hand on the wall in front of Polina Nevmovenko, 1:45.46 to 1:45.62. Later, she beat Nevmovenko again in the 100 freestyle, swimming 48.77. Both swims near her lifetime bests (1:45.06/48.69), set in March.

Nel was about a half second off her lifetime best from the 2024 NCAA Championships. Later, she beat Nevmovenko again in the 100 freestyle, swimming 48.77

Smith won the 100 breaststroke for the Tar Heels (59.22), then Mary Macaulay and Taylor Bloom went 1-2 in the 200 fly, swimming 1:56.98 and 1:58.29. Macaulay added another event win in the 200 IM. She swam 1:59.58 and was the only swimmer in the field to break the 2:00 mark.

At other meets in the league this weekend, we’ve seen teams go on long runs, winning four or five events in a row. That didn’t happen at this meet and neither were there a lot of 1-2 finishes or podium sweeps, making the lower-place finishes all the more important.

It came down to the final relay, where Nevmovenko (48.91), Lisa Klevanovich (48.56), Kate Murray (48.85), and Mulvihill (48.29) came through for the Tigers, stopping the clock at a season-best 3:14.61 to finish .39 seconds ahead of the Tar Heels and win the meet.

The men’s meet was more lopsided, as the unranked UNC men beat No. 12 Auburn by 38 points.

UNC got the ball rolling in the 200 medley relay, as Walker Davis (21.34), Xavier Ruiz (23.99), Boyd Poelke (20.24), and Louis Dramm (18.73) combined for a 1:24.30 to win. After Auburn’s Mason Mathias won the 1000 freestyle, UNC got right back into the win column in the 200 freestyle, going 1-2 with Canadian Olympian Patrick Hussey (1:35.26) and Louis Dramm (1:35.66).

Nate Stoffle and UNC’s Davis went out together, flipping in 22.63 on the opening 50 yards of the 100 backstroke. Stoffle split 23.28 on the back half of the 100 backstroke, pulling away to win in 46.01. Davis and JT Schmid, one of three BOTR recruits UNC welcomed this season, went 2-3, then UNC swept the 100 breaststroke podium with Ben Delmar (52.75), Ruiz (52.98), and Carter Freudenstein (54.60).

After Seb Lunak won the 200 fly for UNC (1:43.10), Kalle Makinen got Auburn back in the win column, sweeping the sprint freestyles with season-bests of 19.34/43.01 on either side of the break. PJ Foy took second in 19.59 and Auburn’s Logan Tirheimer broke 20 seconds for the first time this season for third (19.91).

Stoffle and Delmar completed their sweep of the backstroke and breaststroke events by winning their respective 200 of stroke decisively; Stoffle swam 1:41.94, then Delmar logged 1:54.03 in the breaststroke. UNC got another podium sweep in the 100 fly, underlining their strength in the discipline this season. Poelke led that sweep (46.41) as he, Foy (46.50), and Lunak (46.51) were separated by .10 seconds.

Dramm closed out the individual portion of the meet with a win in the 200 IM (1:44.13), then UNC came from behind to win the 400 freestyle relay to put an exclamation point on their meet. Makinen and Ryan Husband gave the Tigers a lead at the halfway point which they maintained through the final exchange, but Lunak closed in 43.75, pulling ahead to give the Tar Heels the win in 2:54.12.

Hosts UNC had a quick turnaround as they welcomed South Carolina for a cross-border matchup on Oct. 26. Auburn is off until the end of November, when they head to the Georgia Tech Invite.