2025 Wolfpack Elite Invite: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2025 WOLFPACK ELITE INVITE

• November 20-22, 2025
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center — Greensboro, NC
• When: 9:30 am ET prelims/5:30 pm ET finals
• Participating Teams: NC State, Virginia Tech, Army, Duke, Arizona, Auburn, George Washington, BYU
• Live Results
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2025 NCSU Invite”
• Live Stream
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1

It’s the first night of finals at the Wolfpack Elite Invite in Greensboro. Opening up the swimming this evening will be both the men’s and women’s 200 medley relays.

NC State took the top spot on both the men’s and women’s side this morning in the 100 butterfly; Leah Shackley led the way for the women, as the lone sub-52 finisher at 51.33. Aiden Hayes enters tonight’s final of the 100 fly as the top seed for the Wolfpack.

NC State’s Lisa Nystrand and Katherine Helms finished comfortably ahead of the field in the 400 IM prelims to hold the top two positions for tonight’s final.

The men’s 400 IM saw the top four finishers touch within 2.9 seconds of each other. Auburn’s Luke Waldrep will seek to maintain his top-seeded status, while Tanner Nelson (BYU), Maston Ballew (AUB), and Kyle Ponsler (NCS) will aim to keep the race tight.

Erika Pelaez (NCS) cruised to top seed in the women’s 200 free this morning off the fast turnaround from the 100 fly; she sits nearly a full second ahead of Dukes’ Ali Pfaff and Carmen Weiler Sastre of Virginia Tech. For the men, Arizona’s Tomas Lukminas was the lone sub-1:32 performer in the 200 free this morning, clocking 1:31.88.

Eneli Jefimova (NCS) led the way in the 100 breast with a blistering 58.01, she was one of three swimmers to swim under a minute in the race; followed by Kaelyn Gridley‘s 59.01 (Duke) and Eleni Gewalt‘s 59.62 (Arizona).

Army’s Kohen Rankin holds the top spot for tonought’s 100 breast final, surging to a top-seed 52.39. Rankin will be in the center of the pool, surrounded by a field that all finished within a second of Rankin.

Tonight’s session will conclude with the 200 free relays.

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:31.10 —Virginia (2023)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut – 1:36.09
• NCAA ‘B’ Cut – 1:36.57

Top 8 Finishers

1. NC State ‘A’ – 1:34.51
2. Auburn ‘A’ – 1:34.94
3. NC State ‘B’ – 1:36.12
4. Duke ‘A’ – 1:36.46
5. Arizona ‘A’ – 1:36.97
6. Arizona ‘B’ – 1:36.97
7. VT ‘A’ – 1:38.69
8. Auburn ‘B’ – 1:38.88

NC State found themselves in a dogfight with Auburn from start to finish. Leah Shackley (23.72), Jefimova (26.26), Tyler Driscoll (23.23) and Erika Pelaez (21.30) sealed the deal for the Wolfpack.

Auburn brought it home hard, Lisa Klevanovich nearly anchored it home for the Tigers in 21.06, nearly catching Pelaez for the win.

It was a race between two teams. Auburn just ran out of room for Klevanovich in the end.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:20.15 — Florida (2024)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut – 1:23.61
• NCAA ‘B’ Cut – 1:23.85

Top 8 Finishers

1. Auburn ‘A’ – 1:22.72
2. NC State ‘A’ – 1:22.80
3. Arizona ‘A’ – 1:23.21
4. Auburn ‘B’ – 1:23.99
5. NC State ‘B’ – 1:24.56
6. VT ‘A’ – 1:25.04
7. BYU ‘A’ – 1:25.25
8. Auburn ‘D’ – 1:25.65

Despite NC States Drew Salls‘ 18.54 closing speed, it was Auburn that was just a touch too much to handle for the Wolfpack.

Sohib Khaled‘s 19.70 fly leg may have been the dofference maker for the Tigers, out-performing Kaii WInkler of NC State’s 20.02, leveraging Kalle Makinen (AUB) to an 18.74 final 50 for the narrow win.

Aiden Hayes blasted a 20.50 to open up the relay for the Wolfpack, but the latter stages proved to be just a touch too much.

Women’s 100 Butterfly

• NCAA Record: 46.97, Gretchen Walsh (Virginia) – 2025
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 52.52
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 51.87

Top 8 Finishers

1. Leah Shackley (NCS), 50.96
2. Erika Pelaez (NCS), 51.94
3. Angie McKane (ARMY), 52.29
4. Lora Komoroczy (AUB), 52.35
5. Lily Christianson (NCS), 52.42
6. Kennedy Noble (NCS), 52.43
7. Tyler Driscoll (NCS), 52.49
8. Carissa Rinard (AUB), 52.57

Shockley openes up with a major event win in the 100 fly. Coming right off the back end of a 200 medley relay win for the Wolfpack.

Shackley was the only one really able to separate herself from the pack. Pelaez did finish second after anchoring that same relay.

Both Shackley and Palaez swam under their prelims swims of 51.33 and 52.15, respectively.

Isabel Iwasyk (AUB) took the win in a strong ‘B’ final effort in 52.33, a time that would have finished 4th in the ‘A’ final.

The start marked an ideal opening for the Wolfpack women.

Men’s 100 Butterfly

• NCAA Record: 42.80, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 46.11
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 45.12

Top 8 Finishers

1. Aiden Hayes (NCS), 45.37
2. Sohib Khaled (AUB), 45.54
3. William Hayton (VT), 46.14
4. Haakon Naughton (ARIZ), 46.22
5. Bradford Johnson (AUB), 46.27
6. Max Kleinman (BYU), 46.29
7. Abdalla Nasr (AUB), 46.63
8. Jakey Hutchinson (ARIZ), 47.02

Hayes was heavily challenged in this one. After entering as a seeming quick favorite. This morning he notched a sub 45-second prelims. Adding over four tenths in the finals.

Hayes went out well, opening in 21.01, but just seemed to lose a touch of speed in coming home, but holding on enough for the win.

Sohib Khaled surged at the end in an ettempt to overtake Hayes, splitting 24.24 in an attempt for the win.

3-7 was an exciting race it itself. with just half a second separting those five swimmers.

Women’s 400 IM

• NCAA Record: 3:54.60, Ella Eastin (Stanford) – 2018
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 4:13.20
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 4:09.53

Top 8 Finishers

1. Lisa Nystrand (NCS), 4:09.28
2. Katherine Helms (NCS), 4:09.98
3. Lucy Warnick (BYU), 4:14.35
4. Audrey Portello (DUKE), 4:15.91
5. Sammie Hamilton (AUB), 4:16.70
6. Audrey Crawford (AUB), 4:17.96
7. Keelan Cotter (NCS), 4:18.86
8. Maggie McGuire (AUB), 4:19.02

It was a tale of two swims, with each of the top two finishers lowering their times by a near identical amount from prelims to finals.

Nystrand opened ip in a clearrly more favorable spot, outsplitting Katherine Helms by a second and a half at the 100.

Nystrand’s lead continued to grow through the backstroke (1:59.16 to Helms’ 2:02.57.)

It was not until the last 100 that Helms became a threat, outsplitting Nystrand 56.44 to 59.90 to just narrowly finish runner-up.

Men’s 400 IM

• NCAA Record: 3:28.82, Leon Marchand (ASU) – 2023
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 3:46.19
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 3:41.61

Top 8 Finishers

1. Kyle Ponsler (NCS), 3:42.28
2. Mack Schumann (AUB), 3:44.25 
3. Tanner Nelson (BYU), 3:44.66
4. Ian Stutts (NCS), 3:45.29 
5. Luke Waldrep (AUB), 3:46.38
6. Cade Anderson (DUKE), 3:48.72
7. Eli Martin (VT), 3:49.58
8. Danny Schmidt (AUB), 3:52.78

Kyle Ponsler ran away with this final, dropping two and a quarter seconds from his prelims swim to secure the near two second victory.

Ponsler lowered each leg from his prelims, notably dropping over a second in his back, breast, and free legs.

Waldrep notabbly fell to 5th after a massive lifetime best swim in the morning.

Schumann and Stutts each swam the fastest of their careers, but fell short of catching NC States 400 IM ace in Ponsler.

Women’s 200 Freestyle

• NCAA Record: 1:39.10, Missy Franklin (Cal) – 2015
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 1:45.53
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 1:44.74

Top 8 Finishers

1. Ali Pfaff (DUKE), 1:44.24 
2. Carmen Weiler Sastre (VT), 1:44.49  
3. Molly Webber (ARMY), 1:46.13
4. Isabella Ekk (AUB), 1:46.14
5. Lily King (NCS), 1:46.50
6. Wyllo Hanson (AUB), 1:46.60
7. Chiara Klein (VT), 1:47.05
8. Emily Claesson (VT), 1:47.32

Top-seeded Erika Pelaez did not swim this event tonight, following her runner-up finish in the 100 fly earlier tonight.

Ali Pfaff (Duke), and Carmen Weiler Sastre (VT) each set lifetime bests en route to a battle for the top spot in the 200 free.

Pfaff was out fast, splitting an opening 50.43. She never looked back, closing in 53.81.

Weiler Sastre was the only ohter swimmer to notch a lifetime best. HEr opening 100 was to the speed of Pfaff, coming out in 51.43. But it was the way that she closed that gave the Hokie a chance to overtake her Blue Devvil opposition; racing home in a blistering 53.06.

Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle

• NCAA Record: 1:28.33, Luke Hobson (Texas) – 2025
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 1:33.93
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 1:32.27

Top 8 Finishers

1. Kaii Winkler (NCS), 1:32.14 
2. Daniel Krichevsky (AUB), 1:32.18 
3. Ralph Daleiden (ARIZ), 1:33.22
4. Hudson Williams (NCS), 1:33.25
5. Brendan Whitfield (VT), 1:33.27 
6. Jerry Fox (NCS), 1:33.52
7. Warner Russ (AUB), 1:33.62 
8. Mikolaj Filipiak (NCS), 1:35.61

Despite Daniel Krichevsky‘s personal best, and over a second drop from the prelims, Kaii Winkler ws the man atop the scoreboard to end the 200 free, leading his wolfpack teammates to 4 of the top 8 finishes in the ‘A’ final.

Winkler was out over half a second slower than Krichevsky at the 100. And was only faser than Krichevsky by three hundreths of a second on the 3rd 50. The final 50 came down to a rocket-like finish from Winkler, outsplitting the Auburn Tiger by almost six tenths to take the nailbitter win.

The entire race seemed to have been stamped by Krichevsky, until Winkler came off of the 150 turn.

Brendan Whitfield (VT) and Warner Russ (AUB) each swam lifetime bests in the final heat as well.

Notably, the fastest swimmer of the day was Tomas Lukminas from Arizona, who touched in 1:31.88 in prelims – a time that will lock up an NCAA Championship qualification for him and was, at the time, the #1 time in the country. He scratched the final.

Women’s 100 Breaststroke

• NCAA Record: 55.73, Lilly King (Indiana) – 2019
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 1:00.30
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 59.51

Top 8 Finishers

1. Eneli Jefimova (NCS), 57.68 
2. Kaelyn Gridley (DUKE), 58.47 
3. Eleni Gewalt (ARIZ), 59.32 
4. Zoey Zeller (AUB), 1:00.27 
5. Aubree Brouwer (NCS), 1:00.29 
6. Annika Finzen (AUB), 1:00.51
7. Hanna Schmidt (AUB), 1:00.71 
8. Kiia Metsäkonkola (AUB), 1:01.17

Eneli Jefimova made it clear in prelims that this was her race to lose, and she didn’t lose. She was only one one-hundreth of a second off of her lifetime best, and cementing her as the 2nd fastest woman in the NCAA this season.

Jefimova didn’t make it close either; opening up in 27.04 was a clear sign that she is hunting for an NCAA crown. She closed another two tenths faster than she did this morning when she went 58.01.

Jefimova’s high pull just helped her grow her lead bit by bit each stroke.

Duke’s Kaelyn Gridley also put down a solid 58.47, just shy of her season-best in 58.66.

Men’s 100 Breaststroke

• NCAA Record: 49.51, Julian Smith (Florida) – 2025
• 2026 NCAA Qualifying Time: 52.58
• 2025 NCAA Invite Time: 51.58

Top 8 Finishers

1. Peter Etzold (BYU), 52.37 
2. Maston Ballew (AUB), 52.56 
3. Kohen Rankin (ARMY), 52.71
4. Uros Zivanovic (AUB), 52.79
5. Eli Martin (VT), 52.90 
6. Jack Smith (DUKE), 52.95 
7. Arsen Kozhakhmetov (NCS), 53.11
8. Will Bonnett (BYU), 53.21

At the 50 mark, all eight swimmers were within six tenths of a second. The latter half was much of the same, lanes 1 though 8 were all in a seemingly straight line.

Rankin dropped to third behind a pair of best times from BYU’s Peter Etzold in 52.37, and Maston Ballew of Auburn’s 52.56.

The entire race seemed that it was a bad turn away from dropping out of contention.

Etzold and Ballew began to pull away on the final five or six strokes, Rankin began to spin and just couldn’t hang on to his top seed position.

Women’s 200 Free Relay

• NCAA ‘A’ Standard — 1:28.26
• NCAA ‘B’ Standard — 1:28.78

Top 8 Finishers

1. NC State ‘A’ – 1:26.75
2. Auburn ‘A’ – 1:28.01
3. Arizona ‘A’ – 1:28.34
4. NC State ‘B’ -1:29.17
5. Duke ‘A’ – 1:29.21
6. Virginia Tech ‘A’ – 1:30.64
7. Auburn ‘B’ – 1:31.88
8. BYU ‘A’ – 1:31.92

Opening up the race was Lisa Klevanovich (21.76) of Auburn and Cassie Moses (21.83) of NC State as the only two sub-22 second freestylers in the initial leg of the 200 free relay. Klevanovich would be the only Tiger to swim sub 21 on that relay.

From that point on it was NC State that began to take control, with Erika Pelaez clocking 21.49. Tyler Driscoll followed suit, furthing the lead to 21.85, before handong the reigns to Lily Christianson as the closer in 21.58.

Auburn was tested for 2nd, as Arizona’s ‘A’ team finished just a third of a second behind the Tigers, highlighted by Riley Botton‘s 2nd leg split of 21.52.

Men’s 200 Free Relay

• NCAA ‘A’ Standard — 1:16.23
• NCAA ‘B’ Standard — 1:16.91

Top 8 Finishers

1. NC State ‘A’ – 1:15.47
2. Auburn ‘A’ – 1:16.22
3. NC State ‘B’ – 1:16.23
4. Virginia Tech ‘A’ – 1:16.87
5. Auburn ‘B’ – 1:18.13
6. Arizona ‘B’ – 1:18.55
7. BYU ‘A’ – 1:18.78
8. Army ‘A’ – 1:19.14

NC State closed out the first night from Greensboro strong. Taking the win as the only team under 1:16 in the field. In this unique format, both 200 yard relays were held on the same day, really stretching teams’ sprint depth.

Salls (19.50), Winkler (18.52), Jerry Fox (18.99), and Quintin McCarty (18.46) combined to add onto the Wolfpack’s win total.

The Wolfpack were about a half-a-second back of Virginia Tech after the leadoff leg. Brendan Whitfield split 19.04 to leadoff for the Hokies, best in the field, but Winkler quickly made up that ground. From there, they were ahead of the pack for the rest of the swim.

Three NC State legs were under 19-seconds, while Auburn, who finished runners-up only had one, anchor Warner Russ in 18.96. The Tigers finished 2nd in 1:16.22.

Standings After Day 1:

Women:

1. NC State- 356
2. Auburn- 293
3. Duke- 158
4. Virginia Tech- 150
5. Arizona- 130
6. Army- 118
7. BYU- 97
8. George Washington- 72

Men: 

1. Auburn- 228
2. Arizona- 173
3. NC State- 148
4. Viginia Tech- 141
5. BYU- 117
6. Army- 77
7. George Washington- 66
8. Duke- 62