After a largely successful first round of swims from the Wolfpack during Wave I of U.S. Olympic Trials, NC State returned to Omaha, Nebraska less than a week later for Wave II. The final wave of Olympic trials was a faster meet featuring big names like Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte, Simone Manuel and Nathan Adrian.
Wave II, held at the CHI Health Center in Omaha June 13-20, implemented qualifying standards based on the 41st-seeded swimmer as of January 31. The top two qualifiers from each event in Wave I punched their ticket for Wave II, regardless of their times.
Nail-biting swims that often came down to the last few seconds and massive time drops defined the Wolfpack’s performances over the duration of the meet. Although several swimmers ultimately missed out on an Olympic bid, NC State saw a total of around 80 swims from current athletes and alums alike over the weeklong competition — quite an impressive number given the blazing-fast qualifying standards.
Day one was off to a great start as senior Kylee Alons posted 58.58 in the 100-meter butterfly prelims, her personal best by a half-second and good enough for semifinals that evening. Junior Ross Dant pulled off a monster drop in the 400-meter freestyle to lower his time to 3:48.40, shooting from the 16th to second seed heading into Sunday night.
Alons added a bit in the 100-meter butterfly semifinals to finish 15th overall, but the stakes were high for Dant to make his first attempt at an Olympic bid. Heartbreakingly enough, the 20 year old dropped another tenth of a second from his prelims time only to finish third overall, a mere 0.13 behind second place and a ticket to Tokyo.
Monday morning saw several impressive swims from the Wolfpack, most notably from juniors Katharine Berkoff and Hunter Tapp. Berkoff, who claimed the NCAA title in the 100-yard backstroke in March, proved she had the same talent in a long-course pool as she broke 59 seconds for the first time in her career to finish second in the 100-meter backstroke prelims. Later in the morning, Tapp had a similarly incredible showing in the 100-meter backstroke, touching in 53.45 to cement his spot in the semifinals that evening.
Furthermore, junior Heather Maccausland became the first Wave I qualifier to make it back for a second swim at Wave II, as her 1:08.92 in the 100-meter backstroke was good enough for 15th, just within the top-16 times that made it back for semifinals. Wolfpack alum Justin Ress also had a strong showing in the 100-meter backstroke prelims, finishing just above his personal best for a second-place seed heading into semifinals.
NC State’s backstroke swimmers were the stars of the show on Monday night, from current athletes to veteran alums. Ress broke 53 in for the first time in his career to post a 52.86, ranking ninth all-time among Americans after the semifinal. Tapp also qualified for his first Olympic Trials final with an eighth-place finish in 53.60, and Berkoff became the sixth-fastest American of all time with her semifinal swim at 58.62.
Day three prelims were a little more subdued, but exciting for Wolfpack fans nonetheless. Senior Zach Brown’s 1:57.02 in the 200-meter butterfly was good enough for a second swim that evening, and alum Julia Poole cemented her first semifinal of the meet with a 10th-place finish in the 200-meter individual medley.
Tuesday night finals would see some intense races for NC State; between Berkoff, Ress and Tapp, any one of them were game for an Olympic bid. Berkoff ultimately finished fourth in the 100-meter backstroke finals, tacking on two-tenths of a second to finish in 58.82, still under the 59-second barrier nevertheless. Ress and Tapp finished within a half-second of each other in the 100-meter backstroke finals to take fifth and seventh place, respectively, and Brown punched his ticket for a third swim in the 200-meter butterfly after a seventh-place finish in semifinals, clocking in at 1:57.02.
Legendary Wolfpack alum Ryan Held swam his first preliminary event on Wednesday morning, clocking in at 48.07 in the 100-meter freestyle to claim first place heading into semifinals. Although Ress did not show for the event, fellow alum Coleman Stewart dropped over a second from his season best to clock in at 48.45, cementing his spot for at least one more swim in the event. Dant and sophomore James Plage both had massive swims in the 800-meter freestyle, finishing third and fifth, respectively.
Both Held and Stewart gained a couple tenths in the 100-meter freestyle semifinals but finished in the top eight regardless. Furthermore, Brown fought an incredibly tough field in the 200-meter freestyle to finish seventh overall in 1:57.13.
Two major time drops in the 200-meter backstroke were accomplished Thursday morning by Tapp and sophomore Mikey Moore. Tapp broke the two-minute barrier for the first time to shoot from 35th-seed to fourth heading into semifinals and Moore touched the wall in 2:00.92, finishing 18th overall. Poole also secured a spot in her second semifinal of the meet with a 2:29.75 in the 200-meter breaststroke prelims, albeit a couple of seconds over her best time.
Thursday evening finals were a heartbreaking session for Wolfpack swimming fans across the board. Once again, Dant finished third in the 800-meter freestyle finals by less than a second, barely missing out on an Olympic bid. Held finished sixth overall in the 100-meter freestyle, but thanks to the roster cap set on the relay-only swimmers for Team USA, Held fell short of returning to the national stage for his second Olympics in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
However, not all was lost, as both Tapp and Poole dropped in semifinals to finish sixth in the 200-meter backstroke and ninth in the 200-meter breaststroke, respectively. Tapp would make it back for one more swim in the event the following night, striving to break 1:57 for the first time in his career.
With only a couple more days of competition left in the weeklong swim meet, Wolfpack swimmers were down to the wire to attempt to make their first — or second — Olympic team. On Friday morning, it appeared that Held had scratched the 100-meter butterfly prelims, forfeiting his 16th-seed. However, Stewart added only 0.01 to finish in seventh heading into semifinals. Later, Berkoff dropped a couple hundreths of a second to post a 2:10.09, cementing her fifth-place spot in semifinals.
Tapp’s 200-meter backstroke final on Friday night was quite impressive — the 20 year old finally broke the 1:57 barrier to finish in 1:56.76, an electrifying swim that rewarded him with fourth place overall in the event. Similarly, Berkoff broke the 2:10 barrier in the 200-meter backstroke semifinals, placing ninth in 2:09.76. However, Olympic veteran Hali Flickinger scratched her spot in the 200-meter backstroke final, pushing Berkoff into eighth place to qualify her for her final swim of Trials.
The last preliminary session of the meet brought one of the anticipated events for NC State swimming fans: the 50-meter freestyle. Although the results were a little rocky — Held, seeded third in the event heading into the meet, added a half-second to finish seventh heading into semifinals — Ress moved up the ranks, from 14th to eighth with a 0.16 time drop.
In the men’s 100-butterfly final that evening, Stewart tacked on a little time to finish in fourth overall, two spots away from an Olympic bid. Berkoff battled a tough field to finish eighth overall with a time of 2:10.20 in the 200-meter backstroke, but Held, unfortunately, forfeited his last chance to make the Olympic team after finishing in a tie for 12th in the 50-meter freestyle semifinals. Fans of the one-time Olympic champion will have to wait three more years to see if the Wolfpack alum can make it back for his second Olympics.
On the final night of Wave II of Olympic Trials, NC State had one swimmer in the water: Ress, who broke the 22-second barrier for the first time the night before. However, Ress tacked on a little more time to touch the wall in 22.14, finishing seventh overall in the 50-meter freestyle finals, the Wolfpack’s final swim of the eight-day competition.
Although no current NC State swimmers or alums made the U.S. Tokyo Olympic Team, international super star Wolfpack swimmers such as Sophie Hansson and Nyls Korstanje will be competing for other nations and will be the ones to watch at the Olympics, which begin on July 23 and can be viewed on NBC.
