NC State’s swim and dive teams picked up a pair of wins and losses between Jan. 27-28. In a top-five showdown over two days at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center in Austin, Texas, the No. 4 men lost to No. 5 Texas by a combined score of 178-156, while the No. 4 women fell to the No. 2 Longhorns by a combined 217-115.
Back in Raleigh, however, the men easily handled UNCW in a 160-126 victory, and the women followed suit to finish the last home meet with a 186-105 win over the Seahawks.
Friday evening — UNCW
In NC State’s last home meet of the season, both the men and women easily defeated UNCW. With most of the team’s top swimmers competing in Austin, other members of NC State’s talented roster got the chance to shine against a well-trained squad of Seahawks.
Senior Elle Giesler and sophomores Kaylee Hamblin and Lindsey Immel picked up two individual wins each on the women’s side. Giesler took first place in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, notching two season-best times in the process. Hamblin won both breaststroke events on Friday evening, and Immel claimed her first regular-season collegiate wins in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.
The men performed just as well — seniors Zachary Cram and Markus Wennborg and juniors Michael Moore and Austin Winchester also picked up two individual wins each. Cram, Wennborg and Winchester won the 100 and 200-yard distances of their respective strokes — backstroke for Cram, breaststroke for Wennborg and freestyle for Winchester. Moore picked up a pair of wins in the 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley events.
Friday evening — Texas
Over 1,000 miles away, the Wolfpack women cracked open their session after finishing the 200-yard medley relay in 1:33.49, the fastest time in the nation this season. Senior Katharine Berkoff outsplit Texas’ Olivia Bray in leadoff by over a second, and junior Abby Arens brought the relay home in 21.74 to give NC State the win by 0.21 seconds.
The men swept two events during Friday’s session, dominating Texas in the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle. Senior Nyls Korstanje, sophomore Aiden Hayes and senior Kacper Stokowski finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly. Sophomore David Curtiss posted a blazing-fast 19.06 to take first place in the 50-yard freestyle, followed closely by senior Noah Henderson.
The women’s sole individual win came from Berkoff, who dipped under 22 seconds for the first time this season to take first place in the 50-yard freestyle. Her time of 21.90 is 14th-fastest in the nation this season.
Saturday morning — Texas
Although the men didn’t rack up quite as many first-place finishes as they did the previous evening, the Wolfpack won two relays in dominating fashion. In the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay, Curtiss cracked a 19.37 on the leadoff to give Hayes half a body-length lead heading into the second 50. Korstanje and junior Luke Miller, who won the 200-yard freestyle the night prior, brought NC State home with sub-19 splits. The men crushed their season-best in the 400-yard medley relay to beat Texas by almost three seconds.
In lieu of the women’s 100-yard backstroke, Berkoff took home the women’s only individual win of the morning with a blistering 47.87 in the 100-yard freestyle. She beat Texas’ Kelly Pash by a mere 0.02 seconds, giving the Wolfpack some crucial points heading into the end of the meet.
NC State will return to Greensboro for the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships Feb. 14-18.
