2016 ACC Men’s Championships: Day 1 Live Recap

2016 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, Feb. 24 – Saturday, Feb. 27; Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Defending Champion: NC State (results)
• Fan Guide
• Streaming: watchESPN
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• Fan Guide

The men of North Carolina State look to defend their 2015 ACC title, the program’s first in more than two decades. That title defense kicks off Wednesday night in Greensboro, NC with a pair of relay events.

The Wolfpack won both of the night 1 relays a year ago and return 6 of the 8 legs, including what was the conference’s fastest backstroke split in Andreas Schiellerup and two of the three fastest 200 free splits in Simonas Bilis and Ryan Held.

They’ll have their work cut out for them, though, as Louisville holds the ACC’s fastest times this year in both relays by wide margins.

The men’s diving events took place last week, concurrently with the women’s swimming and diving events. They’ll be added into the running team scores as each diving event falls in the traditional meet order, but with only diving points on the board, Virginia Tech will be spotted a 97-point lead over the entire field with 247, with Georgia Tech (149) and Florida State (134) joining the top three.

Virginia Tech was third last year behind NC State and Louisville in the team totals. NC State did not enter any divers, and Louisville is currently just 9th with 37 diving points.

200 Medley Relay – Timed Finals

1. North Carolina State – 1:23.19 (ACC Meet, Conference Record)
2. Louisville – 1:24.01
3. North Carolina – 1:24.01

For the 3rd-straight year, the North Carolina State Wolfpack men have won the 200 medley relay at the ACC Championships. The team of Hennessey Stuart (21.22), Derek Hren (23.54), Simonas Bilis (20.27), and Ryan Held (18.16) have combined for a record-crushing 1:23.19 that clears the meet and conference records of 1:23.78 set by an entirely different Wolfpack foursome in 2014.

The 18.16 anchor by Held was the highlight of the relay, as he kept dangerously close to joining Vlad Morozov as the only swimmers under 18 seconds on a 50 free relay split.

The overall relay time is the fastest in the country by half-a-second, clearing the Florida Gators, and pending further results on Wednesday evening.

Louisville took 2nd in 1:24.01, while North Carolina was 3rd in 1:24.70. North Carolina’s Sam Lewis had the low split* on the 50 fly (20.26), and Duke’s Peter Kropp was 23.43 on their breaststroke leg as Duke became the 4th relay to qualify for NCAA’s.

*Note – splits on Louisville’s 2nd-place relay had errors.

Men’s 800 Free Relay – Timed Finals

1. North Carolina State – 6:12.76
2. Louisville – 6:14.96
3. Virginia – 6:22.59

The Wolfpack defended a second relay title and broke the ACC Championship (but not overall conference) Records, plus posted another nation-leading time, in the men’s 800 free relay. The team of Ryan Held (1:33.60), Simonas Bilis (1:32.63), Justin Ress (1:34.33), and Soeren Dahl (1:32.20) combined for a 6:12.76.

That’s four-tenths better than they were last year with almost the same relay (swapping in Ress for David Williams) as the old Championship Record.

That relay consisted of 1 freshman, 1 sophomore, 1 junior, and 1 senior, showing that the Wolfpack are building a sustainable roster across multiple years of successful recruiting.

The Louisville men were again 2nd with a 6:14.96, and those were the only two relays to earn NCAA Automatic Qualifications in this relay, as they were well ahead of third-place Virginia (6:22.59).

Louisville’s highlight split was a 1:32.39 from junior Grigory Tarasevich on their 3rd leg – the second-fastest split of the entire field. Tarasevich is best known as a backstroker, and so that time in the freestyle is a good sign heading toward his primary events later in the meet.

The Virginia men took 3rd in 6:22.59.

Florida State’s relay, which stopped the clock in 8:30, was disqualified.

Team Scores

Note: the scores shown on live results don’t include any diving results, and throughout the meet will only include those diving events that fall on the official meet schedule through that day. However, all diving actually finished last week, in parallel with the women’s meet, and so we’ve included all of those scores below. Virginia Tech entered the swimming portion of the meet with a huge lead, followed by Georgia Tech. Miami has no men’s swimming program, and so will ultimately finish last overall, while the defending champions from North Carolina State didn’t have any divers, and so will climb the rankings throughout.