A large contingent of NC State swimmers will be headed to Austin, Texas, from Thursday to Sunday to compete in the TYR Pro Series event hosted by the University of Texas.
For the Wolfpack, ranked third nationally for the men and 14th for the women, the event will be a good opportunity to get a much larger chunk of its roster in the pool for competitive swims, rather than just its top swimmers. It will also serve as a chance for NC State swimmers to get experience swimming a long-course meters format, like at the Olympics, opposed to the NCAA short-course yards pools.
NC State is fielding swimmers in 33 of the 34 events at the meet, with the one exception being the women’s 200-meter butterfly. In a strong field scattered with former Olympians, the Pack is still persistently atop the qualifying timesheets.
Of the 34 events, NC State has at least one swimmer with a top-10 seed time in 21 of them. The Pack has multiple top-10 swimmers in 10 events, and three swimmers in the top 10 in the women’s 800-meter freestyle, men’s 100-meter freestyle and the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle.
Perhaps the strongest event of the meet for NC State is the men’s 100m free. Senior Olympian Ryan Held leads the 12-man contingent of Pack swimmers in the event. Held has the second-fastest qualifying time in the field, behind only five-time Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian. Held’s time is slightly over half a second behind Adrian.
Behind Held is junior Justin Ress, who comes in with the fifth-best seed time, and freshman Giovanni Izzo in eighth. Nine other Wolfpack swimmers are on the psych sheet for the race, including junior Andreas Vazaios.
Another very strong event for the Pack is the women’s 1,500m free. Senior Hannah Moore, freshman Tamila Holub and sophomore Ariel Finke all enter the meet with top-10 seed times in the event, led by Moore’s 16:08.68, good for fifth best.
Moore also fronts the Pack in the women’s 800m free. Her seed time of 8:27.58 is second to only Leah Smith, a former ACC rival at Virginia and Olympic bronze medalist. Finke and Holub again have top-10 seed times in the 800m free as well, with Finke in sixth and Holub in eighth.
In the women’s 400-meter individual medley, Moore again has a very strong qualifying time and will be seeded seventh. Moore’s other strong event is the 400-meter freestyle, where she has the fifth-fastest seed time.
Another NC State swimmer set to have a good weekend in Austin is senior Olympian Anton Ipsen. Ipsen has one of the 10 fastest seed times in four events at the meet, highlighted by his fourth-place seed in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.
While the Pack should have significant success across the board, one other event that should see NC State near the top is the men’s 50-meter backstroke. Ress, who competed for the United States at the 2017 World Championships in the event, has the third-fastest seed time and could be poised to take gold. Right behind Ress is senior Hennessey Stuart, with the seventh-best time.
