2018 ACC Men’s Champs: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

by Robert Gibbs 33

February 21st, 2018 ACC, College, Previews & Recaps

2018 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • When: Wednesday, February 21st to Saturday, February 24th | Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00pm
  • Where: Greensboro Aquatics Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
  • Defending Champion: NC State Wolfpack (results) fix
  • Psych Sheet: here
  • Live Results: here
  • Streaming: WatchESPN (subscription required)
  • Championship Central: here

The first day of the 2017 ACC men’s swimming and diving championships will kick off with the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay tonight.  NC State is the defending champion and top seed in both events, and on paper, should win both relays easily tonight.

NC State and Louisville are the only two teams with NCAA cuts in either of tonight’s relays, with NC State having achieved qualifying/A cuts in both and Louisville having provisional/B cuts.

200 Medley Relay

Conference Record: NC State, 1:23.16, 2017
Meet Record: NC State, 1:23.16, 2017
Defending Champion: NC State, 1:23.16

  1. Louisville, 1:23.41
  2. NC State, 1:23.93
  3. Virginia, 1:24.69

Well, we got our first upset of the meet.  NC State’s Coleman Stewart led off with a 20.65, but Louisville’s Nicholas Albiero kept it close with a 20.95.  Carlos Claverie then outsplit Jacob Molacek 23.55 to 23.83, to move the Cardinals within 0.02s at the halfway point.

Things stayed incredibly tight through the butterfly leg, with Giovanni Izzo just a hair faster than Zach Harting (20.36 to 20.37) to give NC State a .03s lead as the anchor legs dove in.

However, NC State elected to leave Ryan Held and an almost guaranteed 18-low off of this relay, choosing instead to go with Cobe Garcia.  Louisville took advantage of NC State’s strategy, as their anchor Andrej Barna closed with a 18.54 against Garcia’s 19.09 to give Louisville the title.

Louisville was playing with fire the whole way, as the reaction times on the three relay starts added up to a total of just 0.17s, including a “perfect” 0.0 reaction time by Harting.  By way of comparision, each of NC State’s reaction times ranged between 0.29s and 0.38s.

At the moment, Louisville’s time is the 3rd-fastest in the nation this year, behind only Florida and Tennessee, and just 0.03s ahead of California, although that could change shortly, with both the B1G and Big 12 Conferences swimming the event tonight.

UVA finished 3rd in 1:24.69, good for a NCAA qualifying cut, thanks largely to Keefer Barnum’s 23.65 breaststroke split.  Florida State and Notre Dame both picked up NCAA provisional cuts.  The Seminoles were anchored by Chad Mylin, whose 18.39 split was the fastest in the field.  Notre Dame was buoyed by Justin Plaschka‘s 20.21 fly leg, also the fastest in the field.

800 Free Relay

Conference Record: NC State, 6:06.53, 2017
Meet Record: NC State, 6:09.82, 2017
Defending Champion: NC State, 6:09.82

  1. NC State, 6:12.92
  2. Louisville, 6:16.88
  3. Virginia, 6:19.80

Much less drama in this relay, as NC State took the lead halfway through the leadoff leg and never relinquished it.  Andreas Vazaios led off in 1:33.70, followed by Ryan Held (1:33.11), Anton Ipsen (1:34.08), and Justin Ress (1:32.03).  All except for Ipsen were part of the relay that set the US Open record in this event at last year’s NCAA championships.  Their time tonight currently second in the NCAA this season, behind only Florida (6:12.06).

Louisville finished comfortably in 2nd place, highlighted by Harting’s 1:32.33 split, the 2nd-fastest in the field tonight behind only Ress.  Virginia also finished under the NCAA ‘A’ standard, thanks largely to freshman Cooper Wozencraft‘s 1:33.61 anchor leg.

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alice wright belknap
6 years ago

LOUISVILLE is loaded with TALENT, GO CARDS !!!!!!!!

Steve
6 years ago

Please link the result to the men’s meet.Seems to still be on the women’s meet. Thank you

#STATEment
6 years ago

After watching the medley relay swim NC state clearly has more left in the tank. Will be a fun week to see them win another conference title, especially with most of them not fully rested.

Will give props to louisville on the medley though. Came out and got their hand on the wall first. Hopefully their taper holds up better than their women’s team though

Aquaman
6 years ago

Wozencraft’s prior best 1:38.82
DeSorbo magic, again

Crusty
Reply to  Aquaman
6 years ago

Desorbo vs DeSelm effect:

DeSelm: Greek recruit. LCM 1:49 2 free. Splits 1:34.2 Not bad split, but I’d say equivocal to time entering or slightly slower

Desorbo: 1:38 coming in, 1:33 split.

Yeah point made

swimfast247
Reply to  Crusty
6 years ago

Point made off 2 athletes? One who’s never swum SCY? After 1 swim?

Crusty
Reply to  swimfast247
6 years ago

Yeah…look at Merillees last year. 1:47 LCM and similar results…you obviously don’t know the history, one and done 1:47 LCM and doesn’t score at NCAAs..but ..by all means, keep me filled in as the results continue

Wahoo Fan
Reply to  swimfast247
6 years ago

Women dropped significant time too. 8 women PRed in sprint events (50s, 100s, 200s). DeSorbo understands how to build speed. Just signed #4 sprinter and #10 distance girl in country. Has a 19.5 boy coming in. Going to be fun to watch.

anon
Reply to  Wahoo Fan
6 years ago

who is that #4 sprinter? kate douglass??

Joel Lin
Reply to  Crusty
6 years ago

1:38 to 1:33 in a first NCAA year is unreal.

Swimgeek
Reply to  Aquaman
6 years ago

Not as dramatic — but Ryan Baker’s PR coming in was 1:37+ — he led off here in 1:35.0

Goldie
Reply to  Aquaman
6 years ago

Wozencraft was 1:40 coming out of high school. That 1:38 was at the UGA mid-season invite.

Silent Observer
6 years ago

800 relay splits.
NC State 6:12.92
1) Vazaios, Andreas JR 1:33.70
2) r:0.22 Held, Ryan SR 1:33.11
3) r:0.31 Ipsen, Anton Oeskov SR 1:34.08
4) r:0.25 Ress, Justin JR 1:32.03

2 Louisville 6:16.88
1) Steele, Sam SO 1:34.76
2) r:0.20 Harting, Zach JR 1:32.33
3) r:0.31 Acosta, Marcelo JR 1:34.84
4) r:0.26 Jones, Jarrett SO 1:34.95

3 Virginia 6:19.80
1) Baker, Ryan SO 1:35.04
2) r:0.24 Schilling, Sam FR 1:35.68
3) r:0.47 Georgiadis, Luke SR 1:35.47
4) r:0.17 Wozencraft, Cooper FR 1:33.61

Observations:
-Looks like NC State is swimming through ACCs this year..especially those already qualified for NCs.
-Louisville wants to dethrone the… Read more »

OldWahooVA
Reply to  Silent Observer
6 years ago

suspect NCSU has quite a few swimming thru the meet – this is their year for the NCAA meet and I bet they are all in on that meet for those already qualified. NCSU had a butterflier (James Bretscher) time trial 1:41.62 200 fly – just missed the A cut time, but probably a solid B in time.

Silent Observer
Reply to  OldWahooVA
6 years ago

Yeah I saw that as well.

I would be willing to bet about 60% of the team is swimming through. Those on the cusp probably got more rest..but not full tapers..just so they can drop time to get those A cuts or close enough to make it through.

Very similar from Texas’s playbook

Coach Mike
6 years ago

Anyone able to get livestream for this? Checked ESPN3.com earlier and they had it on the schedule but now it’s not there.

Swammer17
Reply to  Coach Mike
6 years ago

Only finals from Th/F/S are streamed on ESPN 🙁

Riley
6 years ago

Man, looks like they’ll have Held, Ress and Vaziaos together on all 4 they’re on.

Tammy Touchpad Error
Reply to  Riley
6 years ago

Izzo or Molaceck might have something to say about that.

ex quaker
Reply to  Tammy Touchpad Error
6 years ago

I could see Vazaios off the 200 free relay but that makes sense for the rest.

ex quaker
Reply to  ex quaker
6 years ago

Oh, and I don’t see how you COULDN’T put Coleman on that 400 medley after that backstroke split.

Crusty
6 years ago

N.C. state reactions sloowwwee

Swimmer
Reply to  Crusty
6 years ago

Louisville reactions 00, .05, .12. Went for it. If you want the biscuit you have to risk it.

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