The N.C . State men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will meet Clemson at home and travel to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina this weekend.
The men’s team (7-1, 4-1 ACC) is ranked No. 23 in the nation. They’ll be celebrating senior night against the Tigers and will be one of three State teams competing in Chapel Hill this week. They’ll face a UNC team ranked 13th and 16th, respectively, in the men’s and women’s categories.
Senior Erica Waters of the women’s team felt the squad was ready for the challenges it would face that weekend.
“After training a lot, we’ve been practicing less and our bodies have kind of recovered for the meet,” Waters said. “We should swim really fast.”
Waters, who was part of the team that won against Georgia Tech two weeks ago, felt they were facing tough opponents back-to-back but they had a good roster setup to defeat them.
“Clemson has always been one of our big rivals and Friday is our senior meet and it will be good to get a win,” Waters said. “Carolina is always a tough meet for us, but I think we have a pretty good lineup set up so I think we should be able to do well.”
On the occasion of senior day, Waters felt it was important to go out on a good note.
“It’s crazy it came this fast,” Waters said. “I remember when I was a freshman, looking at the seniors at senior meet and thinking I would never be there and to have the senior meet against Clemson is going to be fun.
“I think it’s a meet we’re going to win so it will be a good memory.”
Sophomore Kohl Hurdle also echoed Water’s sentiments with respect to senior day.
“Last year Clemson beat us and they are our least favorite team in the ACC,” Hurdle said. “For them coming to our house and it being senior day and us going to destroy them, its just going to make it that much better.”
Hurdle, who was named to the All-ACC academic team last year, felt the new coaching staff was responsible for turning around the team; the staff turned things around after the team found itself ranked for the second time this season, having also been ranked 19th in November.
“They are a lot more serious,” Hurdle said. “With the new head coach, you need to be doing your best. They also make it more competitive to get on the ACC team.
“The coaches set an atmosphere like that and we follow it.”
First-year head coach Braden Holloway felt his team was focused on doing well in the ACC championships and would use the weekend’s meets as a stepping-stone for the same.
“All our preparations are geared towards the ACC championships,” Holloway said. “These are just building blocks along the way, providing great competition and giving us more chances to practice our race strategies.
“These help make each individual execute their race better each time they do it, so by the end of the year, they are ready to go.”
Holloway felt he was happy with the way things had gone in his first year in charge of the Pack.
“I feel good about the first year,” Holloway said. “I think there’s still a lot of changes I want to implement, a couple of other new items that I would like to bring forth in front of the team but I think for the first year, they have really taken well to the staff.
“They have showed a great level of interest in the new things the staff has brought to them and I think they have created a high level of motivation that has really carried them through the year,” Holloway added. “They are showing a lot of passion, a lot of desire and fire and that has helped us achieve what we have.”
Holloway said he was implementing a long-term strategy to improve the team.
“The most important thing I want to finish this year with is coming off and doing well in the conference championships,” Holloway said. “It basically sets them up for next year to want even more and demand even more out of themselves and reach even higher levels than they thought were possible.”
The Pack will take on Clemson at the Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center at 5 p.m . on Friday and will square off against UNC at 11 a.m . on Saturday.
