After a somewhat disappointing eight-place finish for the NC State men’s swim and dive team in 2021, the Wolfpack rebounded this past weekend at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta with a top-five finish.
NC State’s performance at NCAAs, which officially wrapped up the swim and dive season, was highlighted by a plethora of top-16 performances from some of the Wolfpack’s best and brightest and junior Kacper Stokowski’s national title in the 100-yard backstroke.
Tying the highest overall finish in NC State’s history, the men put up 291 points over four days of competition, 26 points more than No. 4 Indiana. The Wolfpack maintained its fourth-place standing pretty consistently throughout the meet, and although there was question of whether or not the team would make it into the top three, the men’s team showed room for improvement with the promise of another riveting season this winter.
NC State garnered two top-eight finishes on Wednesday evening to kick things off for the Wolfpack’s final meet of the season. Stokowski, senior Rafal Kusto, junior Nyls Korstanje and freshman David Curtiss posted a 1:21.69 in the 200-yard medley relay to place third overall, the first and only relay podium finish for the Wolfpack. Although NC State’s mid-distance freestyle is, at times, a bit weaker overall, the Wolfpack dropped a little over a tenth of a second to finish sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay, just ahead of Florida and Louisville.
Although the men’s team hasn’t seen the likes of a powerhouse IM specialist since Andreas Vazaios, the other two events on Thursday morning — the 500-yard freestyle and the 50-yard freestyle — saw several top-16 finishes from NC State. Following an impressive ACC title in the 500-yard freestyle, junior Ross Dant posted a 4:10.66 in prelims, just off his personal best, to clinch a spot in that evening’s A-final. In the 50-yard freestyle, Korstanje barely out-touched Indiana’s Bruno Blaskovic to finish eighth, sliding into the A-final by the skin of his teeth. Surprisingly, ACC champ Curtiss finished fifteenth in prelims, barely making it into that evening’s consolation final.
Dant faltered a little on Thursday evening, adding almost four seconds in the 500-yard freestyle finals to place eighth, Korstanje dropped an additional 0.28 from prelims in the 50-yard freestyle to finish fifth overall, just outside of podium range but garnering 14 points for the Wolfpack. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, junior Noah Henderson, Korstanje, Stokowski and freshman Aiden Hayes finished in 1:14.69, a mere 0.01 ahead of No. 17 Virginia.
Friday morning was highlighted by Korstanje’s and Hayes’ performances in the 100-yard butterfly — both men posted sub-45 swims to finish in fifth and eight, respectively, ahead of that evening’s finals. Furthermore, sophomore Luke Miller dropped over half a second in the 200-yard freestyle to finish in 1:31.78, and Stokowski easily made it into the 100-yard backstroke A final with a time of 44.44, a third place finish for the reigning NCAA runner-up.
In his first-ever NCAAs, junior Bayne Bennett competed in the 3-meter diving event on Friday morning as NC State’s sole diver of NCAAs.
The Wolfpack saw several incredible performances on Friday evening, from Miller’s fourth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle to Hayes’ first top-eight NCAA finish as a freshman, but Stokowski’s national title in the 100-yard backstroke took the cake. After a second-place finish from Stokowski last year, this event was the Wolfpack’s best chance at an individual title, much more so than even the 50-yard freestyle or 100-yard butterfly. Stokowski touched the wall in 44.04, 0.4 faster than his prelims time and just barely above the 43-second barrier, cliniching his first-ever individual national championship.
On the last morning of competition, junior Hunter Tapp and Stokowski were NC State’s only swimmers to finish in the top 16 in any event. The two men placed ninth and 12th in the 200-yard backstroke, respectively. Although Saturday morning’s session was slightly underwhelming for the Wolfpack, both sophomore Will Gallant and Dant had huge swims in the 1,650-yard freestyle: Gallant dropped a little over two seconds to finish second overall, and Dant touched the wall in 14:31.72, less than half a second behind Gallant. Combined, they brought in 33 more points for the Wolfpack over the penultimate session of the meet.
Stokowski and Tapp finished 10th and 11th, respectively, in the consolation final of the 200-yard backstroke Saturday evening. In the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, Miller, Korstanje, junior Bartosz Piszczorowicz and Henderson all swam sub-42.1 splits to finish in fifth overall. With those final 28 points, the Wolfpack cemented a solid fourth-place finish to wrap up the 2021-2022 swim and dive season.
