Pirates Open The Season With Loss To North Carolina

Friday, October 5

Greenville, NC

5 PM

East Carolina University

141

159

North Carolina

October 05, 2018 | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming & Diving

Complete Results (PDF)Photo Gallery

Complete Results | Photo Gallery

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The ECU men's and women's swimming & diving teams both fell in their season-opening dual meet against North Carolina on Friday at Minges Natatorium, by scores of 196-99 on the women's side and 159-141 for the men.

"I tell the team every meet, it's about us," ECU Head Coach Matthew Jabs said. "I don't care who we compete against, it's all about us and what we do. When we focus on that, and we bring energy, good things will happen. I'm proud of our captains and team leaders that helped us get the team ready for tonight. There were a lot of positives that came out of this meet."

The men were led by freshman Marek Osina with three individual first-place finishes. Osina touched first in the 200 IM (1:51.67), 200 backstroke (1:48.16) and 200 butterfly (1:51.91). He also swam leadoff for the victorious 200 medley relay team.

Three of the four members of the Pirates' medley relay team were triumphant in individual events. Jacek Arentewicz, who swam the second leg of the relay, finished first in the 200 breaststroke (2:01.78), touching more than two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Gavin Erdmann swam the anchor leg in the relay and used his speed to edge the field by 0.26 in the 50 free (21.10). Victor Dos Santos posted a similar margin of victory in the 100 free (46.40), winning by 0.25. Blaz Demsar recorded the squad's closet margin of victory, by touching the wall 0.10 ahead of his nearest competitor in the 500 free (4:37.10).

Junior Magnus Andersen posted three second-place finishes, while Gustavo Santos and Pietro Nannucci each finished runner-up in one event.

"Hats off to UNC on the win." Jabs said. "They did what they needed to do, but we gave them one heck of a meet and made them earn every point. I'm was really excited about the way we started the meet, and the energy and the execution of our races throughout the entire night. We had some young guys really step up and have a huge impact on the score. Meets that come down to the last relay are a lot of fun, and that's what we saw tonight."

Senior Catherine Johnson was the lone victor on the ladies side for ECU. She reached the wall a mere 0.07 ahead of teammate Stefanie Scherwitzel in the 100 free (52.13).
It was one of three second-place finishes for Scherwitzel, who finished runner-up in the 200 and 500 free as well. Freshman Marian Vignoli placed second in the 500 and 1,000 free. Victoria Gillet and Lise-Lotte Bentin each posted a runner-up finish in the 200 and 100 fly, respectively.

"UNC performed well tonight," Jabs said. "They were nationally ranked last season and we expected it to be a big challenge for us. I'm very proud of our ladies. They did a good job, improving upon our intrasquad results, and competing in every race. We have a young team and we will learn a lot from this experience.

"We're really appreciative of the crowd that came out to support us. The energy in Minges tonight was special. There wasn't an empty seat, and it was one of the loudest meets I've been a part of."

ECU returns to action Saturday, Oct. 13, against William & Mary in Williamsburg. The meet is scheduled for a noon start.