The NC State swimming and diving team will head down Tobacco Road to Chapel Hill to compete in the annual Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup Invitational which begins Thursday.
This year, the Nike Cup is hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill inside the Maurice J. Koury Natatorium, but the meet dates back to 1986 and uses a similar format to the standard ACC and NCAA Championships’ three-day setup. Each day there are preliminaries in the mornings starting at 9:30 a.m., with four finals heats following each night beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Last year at Nike Cup, the women’s team placed third overall, trailing UNC and East Carolina. The men’s team finished second to the Tar Heels.
This year, eight schools will compete for the Nike Cup title, including: UNC-Chapel Hill, Tennessee, Navy, Air Force, East Carolina, Duke, NC State and Old Dominion.
The Wolfpack enters the competition after a strong start to the season, with both the men’s and women’s teams placing first at the All North Carolina Invitational.
The men’s team remains undefeated with a perfect 4-0 record and is also ranked in the top 10 in the most recent CSCAA NCAA Division 1 Swimming and Diving Rankings. The women’s squad has also moved up two spots in the rankings, standing at No. 20 with a 2-2 season record and a 2-1 ACC record.
In its most recent meet on Nov. 15, NC State traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to take on the Cavaliers. The men’s team dominated in all events, including relays.
Sophomore Andreas Scheillerup, sophomore Derek Hren, sophomore Soren Dahl and junior Simonas Bilis finished first in the 200 medley with a time of 1:28.26. Bilis, Scheillerup, freshman Ryan Held, and senior David Williams also picked up a win and a team season best time in the 200 freestyle relay.
The women’s relays also had a season-best time in the 200 free relay where senior Lauren Poli, junior Ashlyn Koletic, freshman Krista Duffield and junior Riki Bonnema clocked in with a time of 1:31.11.
The men’s team continues to prove its quantity of talent in both sprint and distance events, according to head coach Braden Holloway.
“I think for the men, our depth is a lot better,” Holloway said. “Some of our guys have really come into their own and given support to some of our lead guys.”
The men’s team has an especially strong freestyle sprinter in Bilis. The Panevezys, Lithuania native continues to dominate the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle events for the Wolfpack and has proved vital to the team’s success.
Against Virginia, Bilis swam his personal season-best time in the 50-yard free. He finished first with a time of 19.78 and again placed first in his 100 free, clocking in at 43.83. His teammates followed closely behind in the 100 with Dahl, freshman Colin Ellington, and sophomore Scott Johnson taking up the top four spots in the event.
On the women’s side, NC State lacks depth in the breaststroke events and has relied on the strong swimming of sophomore Kayla Brumbaum.
“We’re a little low in breaststroke,” Holloway said. “We’ve lost a few girls in the breaststroke, and Kayla’s taken the lead on that for us.”
As one of just three dedicated breaststrokers, Brumbaum has carried NC State in competitions so far. In Charlottesville, she finished second in the 100 (1:02.25) and 200 breast (2:16.17), giving her and the Pack another season-best time.
This weekend, the Wolfpack will continue to rely on its veteran swimmers in an attempt to claim another first-place finish.
