University of Virginia Library

Tankers Open ACC With Terps

By Jim Wilson
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

This afternoon at four o'clock in
Memorial Gym, the reigning
swimming champion, Maryland,
will try to improve her current 3-1
record at the Virginia mermen's
expense. With almost all of last
year's letter winners returning, the
Terrapin's present an awesome
challenge for any ACC team, let
alone the building Cavalier team.

So far this season Maryland has
three victories to her credit
including a 72-40 thrashing of
traditionally strong North Carolina.
Her only loss came at the hands of
Florida, the best swimming team in
the South and last year's Southeast
Conference Champs.

Depth Biggest Asset

Maryland is strong and has
good depth in all events. Whereas
Virginia has good depth, her quality
is not nearly as high as the
Terrapins'. Along with seven ACC
runner-ups from last year's team,
Maryland also has the ACC champs
in the 100 butterfly and
breaststroke, 200 freestyle and
breaststroke, and the Championship Medley Relay team returning.

Over the Christmas break, while
Maryland was capturing the Penn
Relay crown, the Virginia team had
little time to journey to
Pennsylvania since they came back
to Charlottesville two days after
Christmas and, except for New
Year's, has been working out twice
a day to be prepared for her
toughest meets of the year. For the
Maryland meet they will not be
suffering at all from the break.
They are in top condition, if not
shape, for this meet. Even Maryland
will not run away for the Cavaliers
who will be taking the meet a race
at a time to do their best against
their first good competition of the
season. School records will fall in
the meet, which will definitely be
the best home meet this year for
the Cavaliers. A good crowd and a
definite home pool advantage will
help the team immensely.

Maryland's best events are the
freestyle ones, all five events and
the relay in which she can enter
three ACC runner-ups, the
runner-up relay, and the ACC 200
free champ Gary Goodner. In the
other strokes Maryland has an ACC
runner-up in each and the
Championship ACC Medley Relay.

Desire Key Factor

The whole meet will depend on
Maryland's desire. If they want to
win it big they can, but, if they
take the Cavaliers lightly, the
Terrapins will be surprised to see
that the Cavaliers will be right
behind them waiting for a break or
a let-up. After all of the effort the
Virginia team has put out this year,
no ACC team can dare to take them
lightly for they will be burned. This
is especially true at the Cavaliers'
home pool with its traditionally
large crowd in support.

The Virginia mermen are aiming
to score more points against the
Terrapins than the Tar Heels did.
They will do their best times of the
year against the best team they will
face this year. Maryland's swimmers
will demolish the pool records
while several school records will fall
for Virginia. As Coach Good said,
"Tomorrow will be the best meet
this pool has ever seen."