NC State swimming hosted Texas at Casey Aquatic Center on Friday, Jan. 26 in a star-studded event. The No. 3 Wolfpack men defeated the No. 9 Longhorns 130-92 while the No. 10 NC State women fell to No. 2 Texas 130-68.
On the men’s side, the Wolfpack was breaking pool records left and right, while proving that the team is earning its lofty ranking. The Pack tallied 11 podium finishes, including seven first-place finishes.
NC State dominated both the 200-yard and the 400-yard freestyle relays as well as the 200-yard medley relay, taking first place and setting pool records in all three races. Redshirt freshman Quintin McCarty, freshman Jerry Fox, senior Luke Miller and junior Sam Hoover’s season-best time of two minutes, 48.24 seconds in the 400 relay ranks fifth in the country this season. Following just over three seconds behind, the red-and-white’s B team also beat the Longhorns’ A team.
In his first time competing in the Pack’s home pool, freshman Daniel Diehl followed up last week’s first-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke by breaking the pool record in the 200-yard individual medley. Fifth-year Kacper Stokowski and sophomore Lance Norris also set pool records in the 100-yard backstroke and the 1650-yard freestyle, respectively.
Norris’ time of 14:48.34 also beat his previous lifetime best by over six seconds and punched his ticket to NCAAs. Sophomore Kyle Ponsler also set a new lifetime best in the 1650 — by over 35 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Pack women struggled against the Longhorns — the second top-two team they’ve faced in the last week — but still tallied six podium finishes. Graduate Katharine Berkoff continued to dominate in the 100-yard backstroke, touching the wall in 49.82 seconds to collect the red-and-white’s only first-place finish of the evening and set a new pool record in the event.
NC State’s other podium finishes came from two second-place relay finishes and senior Abby Arens and junior Annabel Crush’s third-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly, respectively.
The Pack also performed well in the deep end, with sophomore Renato Calderaro’s score of 409.73 in the 3-meter earning him a pool record. Fellow divers fifth-year Helene Synnott and graduate student Bayne Bennett competed in the 1-meter — Synnott scored a 305.93 in the women’s event to take second place and Bennett finished in third place on the men’s side with a score of 379.35.
Up next, the red-and-white is scheduled to host UNC-Wilmington in another dual meet. Competition against the Seahawks is set for 5 p.m. on Feb. 2 at Casey Aquatic Center in Raleigh.
