When sophomore Scot Robison hit the water to swim the third leg of Virginia’s 400 free relay, it appeared as if Virginia would suffer yet another close loss to its bitter foes from North Carolina. When Robison emerged from the pool roughly 44 seconds later, however, the Cavaliers’ outlook could not have been more different.
In a final event that would decide the victor of Saturday’s high-intensity dual meet — which Virginia coach Mark Bernardino described as “winner-take-all” — the Cavaliers trailed the Tar Heels by a half-second following the first two legs. Robison, however, turned in an inspired swim, not just erasing the deficit but handing sophomore anchor Matt McLean a body length of breathing room.
The distance would be too great for North Carolina to overcome, as the Cavaliers claimed first and third places in the deciding event to secure a tight 156-144 victory on the men’s side of the meet.
The win was just the beginning of an impressive weekend of swimming for Virginia; the women topped the Tar Heels 182.5-117.5 in less dramatic fashion later Saturday afternoon, and both squads dominated Duke Sunday. On the women’s side, the Cavaliers (10-1, 5-0 ACC) cruised to a 169-126 victory against the overmatched Blue Devils, while the Virginia men (10-2, 5-0 ACC) won in a 163-123 landslide.
“Beating Carolina and beating them badly is something that always makes me excited and happy,” said Megan Evo, one of seven seniors honored Sunday in their final home meet at Virginia. “[The win against Duke] was just fun. It was a good weekend.”
Though Evo played a leading role in making the weekend good for the Cavaliers, racking up three victories both Saturday and Sunday, she was just one of many Virginia swimmers to step up and turn in big performances when it mattered most.
Robison, in particular, was crucial to the men’s weekend effort, especially in Virginia’s late push to beat perennial ACC nemesis North Carolina. In addition to leading the Cavalier surge in the relay, the sophomore also won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. Perhaps most impressive of all was his second-place finish in the 100 butterfly; swimming on a short amount of rest, he nevertheless managed to pick up four critical points for Virginia.
“To come right out of the 100 free with less than 10 minutes rest and do what he did in the 100 fly was huge,” Bernardino said. “He was hands-down, flat-out, nothing less than spectacular today.”
If Robison was nothing short of outstanding Saturday, so was McLean. Racing against his toughest competition of the season in North Carolina sophomores Chip Peterson and Joe Kinderwater in the 500 freestyle, McLean went out fast and never looked back, leading the race from wire-to-wire to win by six seconds. The 10th swimming event of the day, the race was perhaps the momentum-changer of the meet, because it marked the first time the Cavaliers had led since the opening relay.
“I knew what I had to do,” said McLean, who also added a victory in the 200 free Saturday. “I just wanted to take advantage of having such great athletes to race like [Peterson] and [Kinderwater] and get out there.”
Both McLean and Robison were quick to note that the team’s weekend wins would not have been possible if not for several all-important second and third-place finishes along the way. In the 500 free, sophomore Taylor Smith upset both Peterson and Kinderwater to touch second, while in the 100 free, junior John Azar came from an outside lane to finish runner-up behind Robison.
“Those were critical and just wonderful second and third places to pick up,” Bernardino said. “Without them, we don’t win the meet.”
While the men were fueled by points in some less obvious places, the Cavalier women went about their dismantling of the Tar Heels in a different fashion, finishing first in 12 of the 14 events of the day.
Joining Evo in capturing two individual events against North Carolina were juniors Liz Shaw, winner of both the 200 individual medley and the 200 butterfly, and Katherine McDonnell, who swept the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, with a personal best time in the 200.
Virginia’s Mei Christensen continued to put the touches on a brilliant season that has seen her set two conference records and twice earn ACC Performer of the Week honors. Against the Tar Heels, the junior finished first in both the 100 and 200 backstroke in NCAA provisional times; she also paced Virginia to victory in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
If Saturday’s win against North Carolina was the Cavaliers’ most spirited meet of the season thus far, Sunday’s dominance of Duke was a much more “business-like performance,” Bernardino said.
A little flat from the emotional toll of the day before, the men and women nevertheless managed to lead the Blue Devils from start to finish. After shaking up the lineup a bit to avoid a post-Tar Heel letdown, Bernardino’s squads managed to finish off an undefeated conference dual-meet schedule with the victory as they get set to enter championship season. With less than a month until the ACC Championships at Maryland and with only one regular-season meet Sunday against Pittsburgh remaining on the schedule, the Cavaliers find themselves favorites to defend last year’s team titles on both the men’s and women’s sides.
“I think that [Saturday against North Carolina] was a good foreshadowing for ACCs,” Evo said. “We kind of got up emotionally and were intense for that, so we feel good about what’s coming up next.”
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