State’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams experienced record highs and disappointing lows this year at the ACC tournament, though not in the areas anyone expected.
Junior Dan Forsythe set a school record in the 100 breaststroke with a 54.97 on the third day of the tournament. He finally surpassed Braden Holloway’s marker, set in 2001, which Forsythe said he’d been eyeing for some time. He was previously fifth in school history.
“I actually knew what it was when I was swimming. I knew I beat it as soon as I was done,” Forsythe said. “I’ve been shooting for it for a while. I wanted to break it last year, but I didn’t have a good ACC tournament last year.”
Senior Kevin Woodhull-Smith hit “B” cuts in the 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke. Freshman Brandon Kingston got one of his own with the seventh-best 1650 freestyle in school history.
Meanwhile, their team was having a rough few days. On Wednesday, the first night of ACCs, the men’s 800 freestyle relay was disqualified, a costly blow to the team’s hopes of victory. State finished ninth with 169 points.
“Everyone – even those that weren’t on the relay – got discouraged by that. It just kind of snowballed from there,” Forsythe said. “People had bad swims, and instead of just moving on, they let it get to them. Everyone was kind of bummed out, but I was feeling good. It kind of stunk because no one else was doing well. A handful of people did well, but overall, the team did not swim very well.”
Head coach Brooks Teal said he was impressed with how Forsythe handled himself.
“That just speaks well for Dan that he was able to keep his focus and confidence and do what he prepared for, despite what was going on around him,” Teal said.
Forsythe hit an NCAA “B” cut, which put him into consideration for a spot in the NCAA tournament. The women’s team found out Wednesday that junior Ashley Richter missed qualifying for NCAAs by one place and .04 seconds.
Richter, who set new school records in 50 and 100 freestyle this season, took 34th in the 100 freestyle. The NCAA will include the top 33 swimmers.
“We have not have a female swimmer go in a long, long time, so we thought we had a chance to break through,” Teal said. “But she’s a junior, so she’ll be back next year.”
The rest of Richter’s teammates on the women’s swimming team performed better than expected with a solid dual meet record and seventh place finish at ACCs.
“It totally flipped,” Forsythe said of the pres-season expectations for both teams. “The girl’s team really got it together, and both teams had a pretty good dual meet record. But it just didn’t work out [for the men’s team] this year.”
Teal said one of the most meaningful plotlines of the 2010 ACCs was how athletes would rebound after new, streamlined swimsuits raised a worldwide ruckus and were subsequently banned. The Pack women’s team responded by breaking several school records, some dating all the way back to the1980s. Senior Patrice Dason broke the oldest school record on the books – the 100 butterfly. Her 54.27 in the 100 fly broke a record set in 1979.
“The records books were re-written last year thanks to those suits, which were a very definite aide,” Teal said. “Now the suits have been taken away, and for the women to come back and swim even faster than they did last year is an even bigger accomplishment.”
