The No. 1 NC State men’s swimming team will travel to Atlanta this week starting Monday, where it will attempt to win the ACC Championship for the third consecutive year.
The Wolfpack (5-0, 3-0 ACC) is the overwhelming favorite to take home the title again this year, two weeks after the Pack women’s team captured its first conference title in 37 years. State has posted the fastest time in the ACC this season in eight of the 13 individual swimming events that will take place during the meet, and a top-two time in all five of the relays.
State has incredible depth throughout its roster, with multiple top-10 ACC times in most of the events. Perhaps the most obvious strength of State is its proficiency in the freestyle races, where junior Olympians Ryan Held and Anton Ipsen will lead the Pack.
Held had the quickest time in the ACC this year in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. He also holds the ACC Championship record in both events, which he set at last year’s meet. Along with Held, the Pack should get strong performances in the 100-yard freestyle from junior Andreas Vazaios, sophomore Justin Ress and senior Olympian Soren Dahl, who all posted ACC top-10 times in the event this season.
The 200-yard freestyle is the specialty of Dahl, who held the second-best time in the ACC this year for the distance. Held is right behind Dahl here, as he earned the third-fastest time and was just 0.1 seconds slower than Dahl.
Ipsen leads a very strong long-distance unit for the Wolfpack, as the junior is the two-time defending ACC Champion in both the 500-yard freestyle and the 1,650-yard freestyle. Behind Ipsen are senior Adam Linker and freshman Jack McIntyre. Linker had the fourth-best time in the ACC this year in both long-distance events. McIntyre had the third-fastest 1,650-yard freestyle time and had a top-10 time in the 500.
State is also very good in the relays, being one of the two fastest teams in the ACC this year in all five relay events. Last year, the Pack had a dominating performance in the relays, winning four out of five at the championship meet. This year, State has the top time in the ACC in just one relay, the 400-yard medley, but has the second best time in the other four.
Another standout for the Pack is Vazaios. Vazaios was the best in the ACC this year in the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard individual medley. He also had the fourth-fastest time in the 100-yard butterfly, which was led by Held. Vazaios looks poised to capture some gold medals during the week.
Junior Hennessey Stuart and freshman Coleman Stewart are the frontrunners of the Pack’s backstrokers. Stuart was the fastest in the ACC in the 200-yard backstroke this season, and had the third-fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke. Coleman was the fifth quickest in both backstroke events but was within three seconds of the top time in both.
If there were a weakness in this State team, it would be in the breaststroke events. The Pack did not have a top-10 ACC time in the 200-yard breaststroke this year, but senior Derek Hren was the fifth fastest in the 100-yard breaststroke and was within one second of the leader.
State will start the week in 11th place, as the divers have already finished their part of the competition. Freshman James Brady and junior Harrison Mitchell were the only divers to compete for the Pack two weeks ago in Atlanta.
In the one-meter and three-meter disciplines, neither Brady nor Mitchell qualified for the event final. The highlight for the two divers was a seventh-place finish from Brady in the platform diving event. The Pack divers secured 34 points for the team, well behind the current leader, Virginia Tech, who has 194.
Despite this early deficit, State looks poised to capture yet another ACC title. The speed and depth of the Pack across the board makes it the clear favorites to win, and no other team looks to have the weapons to dethrone the Wolfpack.
