For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.
With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.
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)
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- Streaming: watchESPN
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Led by a huge 50 free, NC State absolutely stacked the deck for tonight’s finals, putting 9 swimmers into A finals in just three swimming events. They’ll have a conference-leading 13 scoring swims tonight, plus a 200 free relay that would be a shocking turn for any other program to win.
Even without entering any divers into last week’s diving events, NC State should take the team points lead early on tonight.
That’s courtesy of a 50 free with 4 swimmers inside the top 5 and Simonas Bilis and Ryan Held both knocking on the door of 18-second swims.
Louisville has been spotted as the top competitors to the Wolfpack, and this morning’s results seem to support that. Louisville has 10 scoring swims plus the relay, and no other team comes even close to NC State or Louisville in total scoring swim numbers.
The Cardinals struggled in the 50 free with no scoring swimmers, but placed 6 into the 200 IM alone, led by 4-seed Nolan Tesone. Trevor Carroll is the highest qualifier, sitting third in the 500 free.
Louisville is tied with UNC and Virginia Tech with 3 swimmers up, but both UNC and Virginia Tech have only 6 total scoring swims.
Day 2 Ups/Mids/Downs
| Up | Mid | Down | |
| NC State | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Louisville | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| UNC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Virginia Tech | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Virginia | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Georgia Tech | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Notre Dame | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Florida State | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Duke | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Boston College | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | 0 | 0 | 1 |
