Coming off its fourth straight ACC title, the NC State men’s swimming and diving heads to Minneapolis this week in search of the program’s first national championship and the school’s first NCAA championship since an improbable Cinderella run by the 1983 men’s basketball team. The meet kicks off Wednesday and will conclude Saturday.
The Pack enters the NCAA Championships following fourth-place finishes at the meet each of the last two seasons. NC State has only gotten better under head coach Braden Holloway, now in his seventh season with the Pack, and could see that continue this week with a Wolfpack team that looks poised to make a run for the title.
An overwhelming strength for the Pack this season, as has been the case for the past few years, is the relays. NC State has taken an individual title home in relays both of the last two seasons in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 2016 and the 800-yard freestyle relay in 2017, and it will likely build on that this year.
NC State has the fastest time in the country in two of the five relays, the 200- and 400-yard freestyles. The 400 free relay looks to be the Pack’s strongest chance to bring home hardware, with NC State’s American-record time of 2:45.69, set at ACCs, being 1.37 seconds faster than any other team in the nation.
The Wolfpack’s time in the 200 free relay is nearly half a second faster than California’s second-best time. NC State also has top-five times in the other three relays, coming in third best in both the 800 free relay and the 400-yard medley relay. In the 200-yard medley relay, the Pack is seeded fifth.
While relays continue to drive the team, NC State also has a number of swimmers capable of winning the Pack’s first national title in an individual swimming event since Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones won the 50-yard freestyle in 2006.
NC State has at least one student-athlete qualified in 11 of the 13 individual events, with the two breaststroke heats being the only exceptions. Two members of the Pack enter their events as the top-seeded swimmer in the field, sophomore Coleman Stewart in the 100-yard backstroke and senior Olympian Anton Ipsen in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
Stewart’s time of 44.54 in the 100 back puts him .17 seconds clear of the rest of the field, while Ipsen’s 14:31.21 in the 1,650 free is the strongest time by nearly three full seconds.
Ipsen is a three-time All-American in the 1,650, his strongest event, and he will be swimming in the 500-yard freestyle, where he is seeded fourth and also a three-time All-American. He will also swim in the 400-yard individual medley, where he is ninth and garnered All-American honors last year.
The 100 back is one of two events that the Wolfpack qualified four swimmers in, as junior Andreas Vazaios (12th), senior Hennessey Stuart (24th) and junior Noah Hensley (27th) will join Stewart in the event.
The other four-swimmer event for the Pack is the 100-yard freestyle, where three NC State swimmers have legitimate shots at reaching the podium. Senior Olympian Ryan Held, a three-time All-American in the event, has the third-best time at 41.41. Junior Justin Ress comes in at seventh, while sophomore Jacob Molacek enters with the ninth-fastest time. Freshman Giovanni Izzo will also compete in the 100 free.
Held has top-three qualifying times in two other events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly. In the 50 free, Held’s 18.75 is .09 seconds behind Florida’s Caeleb Dressel, the defending champion in both the 50 and 100 free. In the 100 fly, Held also has the third-best time right ahead of his teammate Stewart, who enters fourth.
Stewart will also swim in the 200-yard backstroke, where he has the seventh-best time. He will be joined by Stuart, who is seeded 15th.
Ress will join Held in the 50 free, entering with the sixth-best time of 18.96. Ress’ other event is the 200-yard freestyle. He has the sixth-highest qualifying time, at 1:32.66.
Along with the 100 back, Vazaios will also participate in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly. In the 200 fly, Vazaios posted a 1:40.77 for the fifth-best time in the country this year, he and will be joined by junior James Bretscher, seeded 19th. Vazaios is the Pack’s only participant in the 200 IM, seeded 10th.
State has three other qualifiers for the meet, as freshman Jack McIntyre, freshman Eric Knowles and sophomore James Brady will also compete. McIntyre will join Ipsen in the 1,650 free, where he is seeded 18th, and Knowles will swim in the 500 free, where he is 24th.
Brady is State’s lone diver headed to NCAAs, where he will compete in the platform event after a score of 799.90 saw him finish second at the Zone B Championships.
NC State is one of the strongest teams in the nation and among the clear favorites to take home the team title. It won’t come easy for the Pack, where defending-champion Texas, California and Florida, among others, will also be gunning for the title.
