An update on former and current Tar Heel athletes

Many UNC teams across the athletic department have been successful over the years. With that success comes various Tar Heels plying their trade in the highest levels of their various sports.

Since not every sport’s alumni can always get the coverage of basketball and football, here’s a roundup of how some UNC athletes have done recently.

Several former men’s Tar Heels won the Gold Cup with the US men’s soccer team, but as you may expect, the women’s national team also has some former UNC players.

Midfielder Allie Long and forward Crystal Dunn are both on the USWNT’s roster for the Tournament of Champions. The US lost their opening game of the tournament 1-0 to Australia, but both former Tar Heels appeared in the match. Long started the match, while Dunn came off the bench in the second half. Neither could help their team to a win, but the US women’s team takes the field again Sunday against Brazil.

Current Tar Heel Marie McCool and several UNC alumns are part of the US women’s lacrosse team at the World Games, an event for sports not contested in the Olympic games. The US won both games in their group before beating Great Britain to advance to the Gold Medal game.

McCool scored two goals in the semifinal, with former Tar Heel Kristen Carr also getting a goal. Another UNC grad, Jen Russell. is also on the team and notched a goal earlier in the tournament. The three and the rest of the US team will play for the goal medal against Canada on Sunday.

Future UNC swimmer Dimitrios Dimitrou will compete for the Tar Heels this year, but he has made an Olympic team last year. This summer, he competed in both the 200 meter and 400 meter freestyle events for Greece at the 2017 FINA World Championships. Meanwhile alumnus Chip Peterson finished 5th in the 25 kilometer open water swimming event, missing a medal by about a minute.

UNC has had some success on the tennis courts recently with the like of Jamie Loeb and Hayley Carter. In Carter’s first tournament as a professional, she qualified for the main draw of an ITF event in Sumter, SC. Carter proceeded to defeat the tournament’s top seed in the first round before falling in her next match. She has since been named an assistant coach at Oklahoma State.

Loeb came close to winning qualification into Wimbledon back in June. Since then, she made a run to the semifinals in both singles and doubles in a tournament in Stockton, CA. With a bunch of lead up tournaments in the United States leading up to the US Open in August, it will be interesting if Loeb can put up some good results in the next couple weeks. She will be taking part in qualifying for the Citi Open in Washington DC on Sunday.

With the success of UNC athletic programs in general, there are probably some athletes who have been left off of this roundup.