The NC State swim and dive team faced off against Stanford, Arizona State, Duke, Army and Penn State this past weekend at the NC State Fall Invitational in Greensboro, North Carolina. The No. 4 women’s squad clinched a win over No. 2 Stanford, and the No. 3 men fell short to No. 5 Arizona State.
It’s rare to see a midseason matchup against any West Coast opponent. Alongside Duke, Army and Penn State, top-ranked Stanford and Arizona State made the trip to Greensboro for a thrilling matchup featuring some of the best swimmers in the nation.
Stanford boasts one of the best freshman classes nationwide, led by Charlotte Hook and 2020 Olympian Claire Curzan. Both young phenoms returned to their home state to compete against the likes of NC State freshmen Kennedy Noble and Katherine Helms, two top-20 swimmers in their graduating class.
The competition was tough on day one — the Wolfpack’s lone first-place finish came from sophomore David Curtiss in the 50-yard freestyle. The reigning ACC champion in the event finished in 18.95 to pick up his first and only win of the meet, a mere 0.04 seconds ahead of Jack Dolan of Arizona State.
Senior Ross Dant and sophomores Grace Sheble and Arsenio Bustos also picked up podium finishes on Thursday evening, garnering NC State 82 points between the three of them. The Wolfpack men finished day one with 437 points and the women finished with 509.5 points.
The women’s relays were easily some of the most exciting races of the meet. Although No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Virginia were absent, NC State and Stanford’s performances gave a hint of more to come at NCAAs this spring.
On Friday evening, the Wolfpack edged out the Cardinal by over a second in the women’s 200-yard medley relay. Although Virginia will undoubtedly be the team to beat in Knoxville, Tennessee — the Cavaliers currently hold the American record in the event — it’s promising to see NC State’s sprint crew step up against some of the best competition in the nation.
The Pack’s victory boded well for the remainder of the evening. NC State picked up three individual wins, perhaps the most promising of which was senior Heather MacCausland and graduate student Andrea Podmanikova’s 1-2 finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Although the loss of breaststroker and NCAA champion Sophie Hansson hit the Wolfpack hard, you wouldn’t know it from the meet results. MacCausland had a particularly impressive swim, touching the wall in 58.16 to notch a new personal best by nearly a second.
Curzan unseated junior Katharine Berkoff, the reigning NCAA champion, in the 100-yard backstroke. Outtouching the competition by over a second, it looks like the 18-year old will pose a serious challenge to Berkoff’s back-to-back championships in the event. Berkoff’s personal best of 48.74 is almost a second better than Curzan’s 49.52, but we should still expect to see a tight race for the 100 backstroke title this spring.
The Wolfpack women’s slew of wins sent them past the Cardinal at the end of day two, tallying 1,489.5 points to comfortably lead Stanford by 136.5 points. The men still trailed Arizona State but held a 155-point lead over Stanford.
Saturday evening’s only first-place finish for the Wolfpack came from Dant, who cracked a 14:44.87 in the 1650-yard freestyle to post the third-fastest time in the nation this season. His teammate junior Will Gallant touched the wall nearly seven seconds behind Dant to take second. Junior James Plage also finished in the top five.
Although the women didn’t garner an individual or relay win on day three, their depth was more than enough to cement NC State’s almost 300-point win over Stanford. The men finished second to Arizona State, a thrilling preview of what’s to come in this year’s national championship meet.
A few select members of NC State’s swim team will race in Greensboro again in two weeks, for the Toyota U.S. Open. Collegiate competition will return on Jan. 14, 2022, when the Wolfpack travels to Durham for a dual meet against Duke.
