Although the Wolfpack women didn’t finish quite as high at this year’s NCAA Championships in comparison to 2021, this year’s meet still showed plenty of amazing swims from some of the best talent the swim team’s seen since the arrival of head coach Braden Holloway. The Wolfpack finished in fifth place with 279 points, a mere nine points behind Alabama.
The women put their strongest swimmers in the 200-yard medley relay to kick things off on Wednesday night. Junior Katharine Berkoff, senior Sophie Hansson, sophomore Abby Arens and senior Kylee Alons broke 1:33 for the first time in program history to secure the silver medal in 1:32.96, a little over half a second behind Virginia. Berkoff unofficially broke the 50 back American record by leading off the relay with a 22.76, the fastest backstroke split of the field. The Wolfpack faltered slightly in the 800-yard freestyle relay, garnering a 12th-place finish to secure 10 more points for the women.
Although no Wolfpack women made it past prelims in the 200-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle during Thursday’s prelims, both Berkoff and Alons made it into the A-final of the 50-yard freestyle. Both dropped under a tenth of a second to finish in 21.56 and 21.62, respectively. Granted, their performances were overshadowed by Kate Douglass’ first-place finish — the Virginia junior posted a 20.87 to break the American record.
On Thursday evening, Berkoff dropped an additional 0.01 to finish seventh overall. Alons finished a mere 0.13 seconds behind her, both women picking up a total 23 points for the Wolfpack. Later on in the night, Berkoff, Alons, Hansson and Arens finished third in their second relay of the meet, touching the wall in 1:26.37 in the 200-yard freestyle relay to beat out Ohio State for a podium finish.
Friday morning’s session was huge for several of NC State’s top swimmers — the 100-yard butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke events proved to be some big swims for Alons, Hansson and Berkoff, respectively. All three women tacked on a bit of time but managed to finish in the top eight to secure a spot in the A-final.
Friday night’s session saw arguably the Wolfpack’s most impressive performance of the meet. Berkoff not only defended her national title in the 100-yard backstroke — she broke the American, U.S. Open, NCAA and meet records by becoming the first woman in history to go under 49 seconds in the event. Although the American and U.S. Open records haven’t existed for long — Berkoff’s opponent, Stanford’s Regan Smith, set both with a 49.16 in 2021 — Berkoff’s records are likely to last for at least a year or so. Although Hansson didn’t perform quite as well, the Swedish native took home bronze in the 100-yard breaststroke finals, touching the wall in 57.01.
The following morning, both senior Emma Muzzy and graduate student Kate Moore finished in the top 16 of the 200-yard backstroke prelims to qualify for finals. The 100-yard freestyle saw two qualifiers from NC State — Berkoff finished second overall, just 0.11 behind the first-place qualifier, and Alons made the consolation final in 48.02. Finally, Hansson qualified for the A-final in the 200-yard breaststroke, and freshman Grace Sheble clinched a second swim in the 200-yard butterfly at her first-ever NCAAs.
Saturday night saw two podium finishes for the women’s team on the final night of competition. Both Berkoff and Hansson placed third in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke, respectively. Berkoff gained a bit of time from prelims, but Hansson dropped about a second and a half from her morning swim to nab bronze in the final college championships swim of her career.
Some die-hard NC State swim fans may have been a tad disappointed at some of the performances this past weekend, but a fifth-place finish is nothing short of incredible, especially considering Holloway’s path thus far. Even though several of the Wolfpack’s top stars will graduate this May, the 2021-2022 season bodes well for the future of NC State’s swim team.
The Wolfpack men will return to the pool on March 23-26 for NCAA Championships.
