Despite numerous podium appearances and countless personal records across the roster, the No. 5 NC State men’s swim team lost to No. 7 Louisville for its first second-place ACC finish since 2014. The four-day meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center came down to a nail-biting 400-yard freestyle relay on Saturday night.
Wednesday night was off to a bit of a disappointing start as the Wolfpack finished sixth in the 200-yard medley relay, finishing in 1:24.14. However, it bounced back in a big way with a first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, highlighted by senior Eric Knowles’ 1:32.27 split. After the race, the men’s swim team held the third-fastest 800-freestyle relay in the NCAA.
The Pack saw its first individual podium finish on Thursday evening as sophomore Ross Dant secured his second place in the 500-yard freestyle. In the 50-yard freestyle, the A-final was noticeably absent of NC State swimmers, although sophomore Noah Henderson posted a 19.31 in the B-final for a time that would have placed him fourth overall. Moments before, sophomore Kacper Stokowski won the C-final in 19.64.
On Friday morning, NC State continued to dominate the preliminary events. There were three top-eight finishes from the Pack in both the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard freestyle, highlighted by freshman Luke Miller’s ACC meet record in the 200-yard freestyle. The long-standing record was obliterated with Miller’s 1:32.28, and sophomores Hunter Tapp and Noah Bowers also hit personal records.
Stokowski defended the Wolfpack’s four-year streak of 100-yard backstroke conference titles with his first-place finish on Friday night, landing NC State’s first individual title of the meet in 44.82. Miller and senior Erge Gezmis finished in third place in the 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley, respectively, adding to the Pack’s hardware heading into the final two sessions of competition.
Saturday morning saw a fourth-place finish from Stokowski in the 200-yard backstroke, as well as three top-eight swims in the 200-yard butterfly from Bowers, junior Zach Brown and Henderson. Junior John Healy also slid into the 200-yard backstroke A-finals with a time of 1:42.34 to finish eighth in preparation for the last session of the meet.
The stakes were high heading into Saturday night finals, and the Wolfpack did not disappoint. Dant finished the meet strongly with another silver medal in the 1650-yard freestyle, and Brown cut two seconds off of his prelims time in the 200-yard butterfly to take fourth overall in 1:42.13.
Despite NC State’s first-place finish over Louisville in the 400-yard freestyle relay, Louisville won the meet overall by a margin of merely two points. A Friday night disqualification in the 400-yard medley relay proved to be decisive for the Wolfpack’s second-place finish, as Stokowski was disqualified on the backstroke leg for failing to break the surface by the 15-meter mark. That being said, NC State remains one of the top teams in the nation thanks to old stars and new talent alike as it heads into national championships next month.
