Three new school records, 16 NCAA ‘B’ cut qualifying standards and 15 new top-10 school marks highlighted the men’s showing in the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Competition. N.C. State accumulated 197 points through four days of competition, but it wasn’t enough to finish in the top half of the conference.
The Pack finished in 8th place in front of Maryland, Boston College and Miami, with Miami only competing in diving.
The Cavalier men collected its fourth consecutive conference title at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta. This year marked the 14th overall title, and in the past 13 years, Virginia has won 12 of them.
According to Coach Brooks Teal, there was no surprise that Virginia won.
“They were definitely the favorite and they performed up to that role,” Teal said.
Brandon Kingston, a sophomore on the team who led the Pack with three ‘B’ cuts, believe the team competed at a much higher level than the final stat sheet showed.
“I definitely think eighth doesn’t show how much better we did this year than last year,” Kingston said. “We scored a lot more points this year than last year.”
No student-athlete from the Pack is expected to make an appearance in the NCAA Championship. In order to make it, a swimmer or diver had to make an NCAA ‘A’ qualifying standard or get really close. Only six swimmer overall in the ACC made ‘A’ cuts.
The championship commenced on Wednesday, Feb. 23rd, with State finishing the day with 3 NCAA ‘B’ cut qualifying standards in the 800 freestyle relay and the 200 medley relay, along with one all-time top-10 mark. Going into day two, the Wolfpack obtained 50 points while tied for sixth.
Day two of the ACC Championships saw two ‘B’ cuts by Brandon Kingston in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:28.28, while the 200 freestyle relay also captured a ‘B’ standard. In ninth place, the Pack only earned nineteen more points from the previous day.
Continuing into Friday, day three, N.C. State moved up a spot into eighth place. Freshmen Barrett Miesfield swam the 100 butterfly, hit ‘B’ cuts with a time of 47.49. Senior Dan Forsythe clocked in at 54.37 as well as hitting ‘B’ cut in the 100 breaststroke. Both times were new school records for the Pack.
Concluding the championship, Forsythe acquired his second school record clocking in a 1:59.13 in the 200 breaststroke. Also adding points to the board were Ivan Kopas in the 200 backstroke (1:45.50), junior Sean Reams in the 200 butterfly (1:48.02) and Kingston with his third NCAA ‘B’ cut for the championship, finding it in the 1650 freestyle.
Forsythe believes that the freshmen had a huge contribution to the amount of points State scored.
“I thought it was a good starting point,” Forsythe said. “Outside of me and Brandon, who scored in the mile, all the other points were from freshmen. I think the future is looking pretty positive as long as they stick together.
Coach Teal believed the same and was proud of the way the freshmen performed.
“Freshmen really played a huge in this, and that’s not the norm,” Teal said. “Sometimes it takes a year under their belt before they are able to make an impact, but for these freshmen to come in and score so many points and swim so well, it’s something to be excited about in the future.”
