For the second-straight season, the NC State men’s swimming and diving team finished fourth at the NCAA Championships while capturing an individual championship in one event.
The Wolfpack captured 272.5 to clinch fourth place, as Texas took home its third-straight national title with 542 points. State won a single gold medal during the week, winning the 800-yard freestyle relay. The top performer for the Pack was junior Olympian Ryan Held, who took home three medals.
The Wolfpack got off to the best start it could have imagined, taking gold in the 800-yard freestyle relay on the opening day of competition. The relay team of sophomore Justin Ress, Held, junior Andreas Vazaios and senior Olympian Soren Dahl smashed the NCAA record with a time of 6:06.53, coming in more than two seconds faster than the rest of the field.
State found more success on the second day of the meet, sitting in fourth place with 123 points after Thursday’s competition. The highlight for the Pack was a silver medal for Held in the 50-yard freestyle. Held edged out fellow Olympian Joseph Schooling of Texas for the second-place finish at a time of 18.6.
The 500-yard freestyle saw two members of the Pack collect points, with junior Olympian Anton Ipsen placing eighth and senior Adam Linker taking seventh in the consolation final to finish in 15th.
Vazaios also qualified for his own final, coming in seventh place in a very tightly contested 200-yard individual medley. His time of 1:41.53 was less than one second slower than the winner.
The Pack also built on its relay momentum from day one, barely missing out on a podium spot in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a fourth-place finish. Seniors Scott Johnson and Andreas Schiellerup, Held and Ress put together a time of 1:15.82, just .53 seconds off of a bronze medal.
Held came close to another podium finish in his sole individual event on day three, coming in fourth place in the 100-yard butterfly. His time of 44.92 in the event was just .67 off of a bronze medal that would have been his third medal of the meet.
State also picked up team points in the 100-yard backstroke, as four members of the team swam in the event at the championships. Vazaios and freshman Coleman Stewart qualified for the final heats, with Vazaios placing eighth in the main final and Stewart coming in sixth of the consolation final for an overall finish of 14th. Junior Hennessey Stuart and Schiellerup competed in prelims, with Stuart finishing just two places behind a consolation final appearance.
Dahl qualified for the final of the 200-yard freestyle, his strongest event, taking home a seventh place finish. Ipsen competed in the 400-yard individual medley, finishing third in the consolation final, good for 11th overall. Senior Derek Hren placed 23rd in prelims for the 100-yard breaststroke to wrap up the individual performances of day three.
State competed in yet another relay final on the third day of competition, as Stewart, Hren, Ress and Held finished in sixth place in the 200-yard medley. The group’s time of 1:23.18 was just .02 seconds slower than the NC State record. The Pack found itself still in fourth place at the end of the third day with 196 points, 195.5 points behind Texas.
Held won his third medal of the meet on the final day of competition, capturing a bronze medal in the 100-yard freestyle. Held finished the race in 41.21, his new career best. This wasn’t fast enough to keep pace with fellow Olympian Caeleb Dressel of Florida, who swam the event in 40 seconds, a new American record. Ress also secured points for State, finishing in a tie for 12th.
Vazaios had his best individual event in the 200-yard butterfly. He finished in 1:40.8, breaking the NC State school record by .26 seconds. Texas’ Jack Conger won the event with an American record-breaking time of 1:37.35.
Ipsen and Linker again shined in a distance event, taking seventh and 11th place, respectively, in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Ipsen recorded a time of 14:34.85, breaking his own school record by half a second. Linker finished in 14:40.46, smashing his previous personal best of 14:51.47.
The 200-breaststroke saw Hren finish in 36th in the preliminary races, failing to make either the main or consolation final. State also failed to produce a finals participant in the 200-yard backstroke, as Stuart and Stewart finished 21st and 25th, respectively, in the prelims.
On the diving side of the competition, freshman James Brady became the first member of the Pack to participate in the NCAA Championships since 1996. He came in 34th in the platform diving prelims, posting 271.05 points.
State’s championships culminated with another strong relay showing, placing seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Ress, Held, Dahl and senior Joe Bonk swam the event in 2:49.09, finishing less than two seconds off of the gold medal that the Pack captured last season.
This brought State to 272.5 points, good for a fourth-place finish. Texas captured its third-straight national title with a whopping 542 points. The fourth-place finish matches the Wolfpack’s performance at last year’s meet, tying it for the highest-ever finish in school history.
Senior Geoffrey Carter dives into the pool at the beginning of the 200m breastroke during NC State's meet against the University of Wisconsin on Saturday, Oct. 22 in the Carmichael Aquatics Center. Carter finished the heat with a time of 2:08. The Wolpack beat the Badgers over the course of their two day meet.
