Wednesday night’s meet was only partly successful for the Wolfpack as the women’s swimming & diving team easily defeated Campbell 150-99, but the men’s team was left to compete against itself when East Carolina failed to show due to inclement weather in Greenville.

“It’s unfortunate, because competing is really one of the great things about swimming,” junior Andrew Keenan said. “At the same time though, stuff happens — things that are completely out of our control. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control the ice on the roads. So we just had to put that behind us and focus on the task at hand and say, ‘Hey guys, we have to get up and race.'”

East Carolina was set to bring both its men’s and women’s team, and in its team’s absence the women competed against Campbell while the men participated in an inter-squad scrimmage. The women opened up with a convincing win in the 200-medley relay and didn’t look back. State claimed first, second and third place in almost every event en route to a 150-99 victory.

“The women really got up and raced well. They had a lot of impressive times,” coach Brooks Teal said. “They raced well the whole way through and there were some pretty solid swims on a day when a lot of them were out of the water yesterday.”

Members of the women’s team, although disappointed at being unable to compete with East Carolina, was happy with the way it performed against Fighting Camels.

“We were really looking forward to swimming against ECU because they were going to be a really good match, but they didn’t show up because of the snow,” freshman Meghan Thompson said. “So we just swam Campbell, and it was kind of an expected win, but our team did really great. We all pulled it together, tried really hard and swam well. I thought everyone did great.”

Despite having no opposing team to compete against, the men’s team still found a way to make use of the situation. They swam in heats against each other, giving the women’s team short breaks.

“What’s neat about having a great atmosphere within a team is that they are used to doing this day in and day out — pushing each other to get better, racing each other,” Teal said. “They are athletes and they thrive on competition. It’s nice to get a little more of a meet atmosphere even though there wasn’t another team here.”

Looking ahead, the Wolfpack face a very good Clemson team Saturday and hope it will help them to prepare for the ACC Championships. Although the disappointment of being unable to swim in a meet still resonates among the swimmers, there are still positives to take away from this meet.

“Right now, every little dual meet, every time we race, every practice is a stepping stone toward ACC’s,” Keenan said. “Our main focus is the ACC Championships at Maryland at the end of February. We’re definitely hungry right now.”