The NC State swimming and diving program headed back from the seven-day ACC Championships with more weight in its luggage than when it left.

That’s because the Wolfpack earned a lot of silverware on its way to a third-place finish by the men and fifth-place by the women — silverware, and new records.

Freestyle relays were the men’s best friend, medaling in the 200, 400 and 800 events. The team of junior Hudson Williams, junior Jerry Fox, sophomore Kaii Winkler and redshirt junior Quintin McCarty took gold in the 400 freestyle relay and set an ACC record in the event. With a time of 2:43.15, they shattered a record set by a previous NC State squad in 2018.

The same core, with senior Drew Salls competing instead of Williams, took gold in the 200 freestyle. Their time of 1:14.02 was good for a pace almost a second faster than second-place California, and more importantly, another ACC record. The Wolfpack have placed first in the 200 freestyle four years in a row.

Winkler, Williams, Fox and junior Daniel Diehl also took silver in the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 6:07.42. Winkler’s 1:30.29 lead-off split set a school record for the 200 freestyle.

While the women didn’t medal in any of those events, they did place fifth in the 800 freestyle relay. Graduate student Olivia Nel,senior Katherine Helms, sophomore Erika Pelaez and freshman Lily King set the second-fastest time in program history at 6:57.74.

The women also earned silver in the 400 medley relay. The group of Pelaez, Nel, freshman Eneli Jefimova and sophomore Leah Shackley finished with a time of 3:24.65.

The Wolfpack impressed in individual races as much as in relays. Graduate student Aiden Hayes took gold in the men’s 100 butterfly with a time of 44:07, while Jefimova took gold in the women’s 100 breaststroke with a time of 56:77. Freshman Max Carlsen took gold in the men’s 500 freestyle with a time of 4:09.44, and graduate student Arsenio Bustos took gold in the men’s 200 individual medley with a time of 1:40.39.

McCarty and Winkler went back-and-forth in the 100 freestyle after Winkler set a program record in the preliminary round. McCarty set a new program record just after with a time of 40.88. In the final, Winkler came out two-hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate for the silver, while McCarty earned bronze.

After breaking a meet and program record in the preliminary round, McCarty swam 18.63 in the men’s 50 freestyle for another gold medal. On the final day of competition, Carlsen earned his second gold medal in the men’s 1650 freestyle with a time of 14:32.68.

No athletes from NC State qualified to the finals of any diving events, but junior Grace Hurley took the highest finish for the Wolfpack in 11th-place in women’s platform diving.

The 2026 ACC Championship brought lots for NC State fans to be excited about, and the program now orients itself toward NCAA championships in March. First up is the NCAA Zone B Diving Championship from March 6-11.