The N.C. State women’s swimming and diving team competed at the ACC Championships in Greensboro from Wednesday through Saturday and came away with a fifth-place finish, totaling 438 points over the course of the four-day event.
Five Wolfpack swimmers claimed All-ACC honors at the event, including junior Zina Grogg, who finished third in the 100-meter backstroke. The Pack’s 200-meter freestyle relay team of freshman Riki Bonnema, senior Marifrances Henley, sophomore Hannah Freyman and senior Allison Hendren also earned All-ACC distinction, teaming up to post a 1:29.60 finish Thursday, beating the previous record by just over a second.
That time also earned an NCAA “A” standard, meaning those swimmers may be invited to further NCAA competitions.
“Winning a relay is a really big deal,” Henley said. “It’s the first time [N.C. State] has won the [200] freestyle relay since 1980.”
The overall competition was won by Virginia, which accumulated 832 points to run away with its sixth consecutive ACC crown. Virginia Tech was second at 536 points, followed by UNC-Chapel Hill at 508 and Florida State with 497 points.
State’s fifth-place finish was an improvement over last season, when it finished seventh in ACC competition. The Pack finished ahead of Miami, Duke, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Clemson.
“For us it was a huge accomplishment,” Grogg said. “This is definitely a really big step for the program and we’re really proud of how we did at conferences.”
“We had a goal to try and be sixth,” Henley said. “And we overshot it by being fifth, and we broke 14 school records, so it was a really exciting weekend overall.”
The Wolfpack wasted little time in breaking those records. On Wednesday, the first day of the meet, the foursome of Grogg, Freyman, Bonnema and sophomore Lauren Poli teamed up to finish 1:38.52 in the 200-meter medley relay, besting the previous N.C. State record of 1:41.12. That same day, Henley joined senior Julianna Prim, freshman Mariah Hamil and freshman Kristin Connors for a 7:11.99 finish in the 800-meter freestyle relay. The Pack ended the day tied for third place overall.
Day three featured more broken records for the Wolfpack, including two by Grogg. Grogg touched the wall at 53.50 in the preliminary round of the 100-meter butterfly and also set a school record in the preliminaries of the 100-meter backstroke, finishing at 52.93. Poli finished at 1:01.79 in the 100-meter breaststroke, topping yet another school record and placing sixth in the event.
Freshman Hayley Tomlinson nearly set yet another record, posting a time of 4:18.12 in the 400-meter individual medley. That time was good enough for second fastest in school history and tenth in the event. The Wolfpack had 322 points after three days, good for fourth overall, before finishing in fifth.
In the diving competition, senior Hanna Hopkins earned All-ACC honors, scoring 291.75 on the platform dive. In the preliminary round, Hopkins’ score was 323.95, the highest of the event.
The Wolfpack is already looking forward to next season, using this higher-than-expected ACC finish as a springboard.
“We feel like next year is going to be our year to make another huge move,” Grogg said. “We have a huge amount of girls that are going to be able to come in and make an immediate impact.”