A banner revealed, a DJ spinning the soundtrack and an Olympic commentator calling events — Virginia is planning to reset fans’ expectations of what a college swimming dual meet should look like.
The Cavaliers will be hosting North Carolina Friday in a swimming-only dual meet at the Aquatic & Fitness Center. The No.1 Virginia women should swiftly extend their streak of unequivocal dominance over the visiting No. 14 Tar Heel women, and the No. 13 Cavalier men will attempt to hold an edge over the No. 19 men.
Along with the promised entertainment, spectators can expect to see some standout performances this Friday — sophomore Anna Moesch, junior Claire Curzan and senior Aimee Canny are coming off particularly strong swims at their season opener at Florida.
Both the US and South African Olympians dominated individually. Curzan won all three of her individual events, the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly in 50.08 and 50.06 respectively, along with the 50-yard backstroke. Canny won the 200 IM in 1:55.03 and 500 free in 4:34.26, jumping into Virginia’s all-time top-10 in both.
Moesch in particular swam the fastest October performance ever in the 200-yard freestyle, in 1:41.42. This time sits at No. 2 in Virginia’s all-time rankings, further emphasising that Coach Todd DeSorbo’s swimmers don’t need “Championships” in the meet title to produce historic performances.
Meanwhile, the Cavalier men’s main challenge is to hold off their long-time ACC rivals, after the Tar Heels won by a gaping margin at last year’s edition, scoring 208.5 to the Cavaliers’ 91.5. Once again, the Virginia men’s hopes at dual meet redemption are leaning on their generational freshman class. Freshmen Maximus Williamson and Thomas Heilman are both living up to lofty expectations thus far. Heilman opened his collegiate career winning all three butterfly events, going 20.52, 45.29 and 1:41.69 — with all three of these times leading the ACC this season.
Before the afternoon events kick off, the Virginia women will ceremonially reveal their 2025 NCAA Championship banner alongside the other four, gradually smothering the far wall of the AFC.
This meet is not only a celebration for the dynastic Cavalier women, but it also promises a showcase for the fans choosing to take advantage of the free admission. This dual is designed less like a typical weekday meet and more like a campus event. Associate head coach Tyler Fenwick explained that this design is intentional.
“Our primary objective is to entertain the crowd … that is number one,” Fenwick said.
To that end, Fenwick helped orchestrate meet-long music by Knoxville’s DJ Sterling “Sterl the Pearl” Henton and is also flying in Michael Poropat — a seasoned announcer at the Olympic and World Championships level — to commentate on the action. Both Henton and Poropat will aim to keep energy levels high Friday afternoon.
“We want the stands packed. We want it loud. We want it obnoxious,” Fenwick said.
Another strategy to keep the spectators engaged is the atypical event format, designed to quicken the pace of the meet. According to the official schedule, a 10 a.m. session will feature the 1000-yard free, as well as exhibition heats of other events.
This clears the slate for a 4 p.m. marquee session with fewer heats, of only the fastest swimmers in the shorter events. They are even chopping the 50- and 100-yard freestyles off of the event lineup, rather awarding sprint freestyle points to those touching first in the leadoff leg of the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays, respectively.
The strategy follows a growing trend of concerted efforts to increase attendance numbers at college dual meets, especially in the post-House settlement era where revenue has been directed away from Olympic and non-revenue sports. Last week at Arizona State, a professor even went so far as to offer extra class credit for students to attend a swim meet. That meet in Tempe, Ariz. drew 2,867 students — the largest crowd ever at a college swim meet.
Although professors at Virginia have not quite introduced that level of incentive, the swimming staff clearly sees the same potential in the bleachers of the AFC, despite the venue’s limited capacity with only five rows of seating. The slim seating arrangements has never seemed to deter the Cavalier faithful, where a marquee meet against Texas attracted fans to even the furthest end of the balcony, a good 60 yards far from the competition pool itself.
With the rankings reflecting a Virginia upper-hand, the true “wins” of this meet may lie outside of the lanes themselves — rather at the announcer’s desk, over the speakers, on the turntables and beneath the celebration of continued Cavalier success — culminating in a show of what in-season college swimming can truly look like.
Leigh Bailey contributed reporting.
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