Two members of the NC State swimming and diving team will head to Atlanta later this week to participate in the AT&T Winter National Championships presented by USA Swimming. Junior Hannah Moore and senior Rachel Muller will represent the Wolfpack at the event.
Moore will be swimming in four events, while Muller will participate in three. Both swimmers have attended the Winter Nationals before, with Moore having gone both last year and in 2014. Muller swam in the event as a high school student in 2012, and also in 2014 during her time at State.
Muller will swim in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard freestyle. She participated in the 1650-yard freestyle in both of her appearances at Winter Nationals but has never swum in the other two events at the meet.
Moore will compete in the 200-yard individual medley, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. Moore has swum the 200-yard backstroke in both of her previous Winter National Championships and participated in the 200-yard individual medleys in 2014.
The strongest event for either of the pair is the 200-yard freestyle for Muller. She has the fastest qualifying time for the event with a 1:44.61 — over a full second faster than the second-highest qualifier. Muller was an All-American in the event last year for State, and competed in the event at the 2016 Olympic Trials.
Moore will also be competing in the 200-yard freestyle, and with a time of 2:00.80 she was the 20th fastest qualifier. Moore’s strongest qualifying performance came in the 200-yard butterfly, where her time of 1:58.70 was the 17th fastest.
Moore is also strong in the 200-yard backstroke, an event that she has competed in twice at the Winter National Championships and for which she was a 2016 Olympic Trials qualifier. She also competed in the 200-yard Individual Medley Olympic Trials, and had the 21st best qualifying time for the upcoming meet.
For Muller, her other two events are also ones in which she had great qualifying times. In the 500-yard freestyle she was the second-highest qualifier with a time of 4:39.11. She was the third-best in the 1650-yard freestyle, an event she was named an All-American in last year.
Muller and Moore have both put together good seasons so far for the Wolfpack, and that should continue this week at the Winter National Championships. Both swimmers are in good positions to have successful meets, with Muller sitting in a prime spot to potentially bring home medals in all three of her events.
Moore won a silver medal at the event in 2014 as part of a relay when she was a freshman at Michigan, but she has not won an individual medal. She could break through on the individual front at this year’s Winter National Championships though, with her best chance being the 200-yard backstroke or individual medley.
The meet will start on Wednesday and run through Saturday.
