Ryan Held, a junior on the swim team at NC State, takes a break during practice in the Carmichael Aquatic Center in July. After being called a "no-name swimmer" at the trials, Held commented on how he'd like to make a name for himself. "I think hopefully I can prove myself worth enough to be on that night relay and start making a name for myself. It's kind of hard to believe as a 21-year-old that this is honestly just the start of my career. Most swimmers don't retire until 28 or 29 so I still have a few Olympic Games in me to train for, hopefully." Held qualified for the men's 4x100 freestyle and swam in the relay with Michael Phelps." />
Nicholas Faulkner/File photo
Ryan Held, a junior on the swim team at NC State, takes a break during practice in the Carmichael Aquatic Center in July. After being called a "no-name swimmer" at the trials, Held commented on how he'd like to make a name for himself. "I think hopefully I can prove myself worth enough to be on that night relay and start making a name for myself. It's kind of hard to believe as a 21-year-old that this is honestly just the start of my career. Most swimmers don't retire until 28 or 29 so I still have a few Olympic Games in me to train for, hopefully." Held qualified for the men's 4x100 freestyle and swam in the relay with Michael Phelps.
Now a perennial powerhouse, the NC State swimming and diving team has fortified itself as one of the nation’s premiere programs, thanks in part to a trio of outgoing seniors that has helped to shape the Pack as much as any class before.
The names of Anton Ipsen, Ryan Held and Hannah Moore fill the Wolfpack record books, as the three have combined for 42 All-American honors and 10 school records during their time with the Pack.
Ipsen, Held and Moore also have a combined 30 first-place finishes at the ACC Championships in relays and individual events, as well as one individual gold medal at NCAAs thanks to Ipsen’s national championship in the 1,650-yard freestyle this past weekend. Held has four national championships as well, all coming in relays.
The Pack men, fronted by Ipsen and Held, have won four straight ACC titles and have also finished fourth at NCAAs each of the last three seasons. For the women, Moore has helped to lead the Pack to four straight top-20 finishes at the NCAA Championships and an ACC title in 2017.
Held, who may best be remembered for his teary-eyed gold medal ceremony at the 2016 Olympics, is the Pack’s most decorated swimmer of all time. He has a whopping 23 ACC titles, winning seven events in both 2017 and 2018. Held swept the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events at ACCs each of the past three years, and was named Most Valuable Swimmer at ACCs his final two seasons.
Held also has national success, garnering 24 All-American honors including the 50 and 100 free in all four of his years with the Pack. Held was part of gold medal relay teams in 2016 and 2017, and won both the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay at NCAAs this year.
Held also has an Olympic gold medal, as he was part of the United States’ winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay team in Rio. He holds four individual records at NC State, in the three sprint freestyle events as well as the 100-yard butterfly.
Ipsen, a 2016 Olympian as well, capped his career off in the strongest way imaginable with a national championship in the 1,650 free, an event he was an All-American in all four years at NC State. Ipsen was also a four-time All-American in the 500-yard freestyle, and took the honor in the 400-yard individual medley his last two seasons as well.
Originally from Denmark, Ipsen entered the ACC in fashion in 2015 and never looked back. He swept the distance freestyle events at ACCs his freshman season, which he would go on to do two more times. He holds the program record in all three of his regular events, the 500 and 1,650 free as well as the 400 IM.
Moore started her college career at Michigan, but transferred to the Wolfpack for her final three years of eligibility. She garnered All-American honors eight times, culminated by a third-place finish in the 1,650 free at her final NCAA Championships.
Moore, like Ipsen, holds the NC State record in both distance freestyle events as well as the 400 IM.
In 2014, the year before this senior class got to NC State, the Wolfpack men finished second at ACCs and 13th at NCAAs. The women finished fourth at ACCs and 16th at the national meet.
Since then, with Held, Ipsen and Moore leading the charge, the Pack has set program highs at NCAAs on both the men’s and women’s side of things. In addition, NC State won both the men’s and women’s ACC Championships in 2017 for the first time since 1980.
Held, Ipsen and Moore are certainly not the only seniors leaving the Wolfpack after the program’s most successful four-year stretch, but their impact will have an effect on the program for years to come.