We caught up with NC State sophomore Ryan Held after the preliminary session on Friday morning of the 2016 ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship.
Two days earlier, Held had anchored NC State’s medley relay in 18.16, one of the fastest splits ever, helping the Wolfpack earn the win, as well as the pool, meet, and ACC records, with a time of 1:23.19. When we asked Held about that split, he described it as the culmination of “nerves, excitement, and a whole year of training,” as well as “unreal.”
Building on the momentum from that swim, Held just touched out teammate Simonas Bilis to win the 50 free on Thursday evening. Both NC State swimmers finished under 19 seconds, with Held touching in 18.92 and Bilis in 18.94.
When asked about goals for the meet, Held said he wanted the Wolfpack to take the top three spots in the 200 free. NC State easily accomplished that goal, as Held, Bilis, and teammate Soeren Dahl all finished under 1:33, setting the stage for a monster showdown with Texas, Michigan, and Florida, among others, at NCAA’s in a month.
Held also expressed a desire to crack 42 in the 100 free. He went 42.56 this morning, and once again, NC State has the top three seeds, with Joe Bonk joining Held and Bilis.
Watch the video for more from Held, including his thoughts on what attracted him to NC State.
Anyone know if he’s good Long Course or not? I like this dude, I’d like to see him do well over the summer, I doubt he’ll make the Olympic team but hey maybe after 2016. You never know
Wes Daniel – he’s pretty good in LC in the 50 – 22.59 at US Nats last summer. 20th-ranked American. He was the 10th-best American in the 100 last year in 49.17.
The video was on a successful swimmer at ACCs, a conference championship that SwimSwam is covering. Nothing wrong with a brief interview with a soph who blazed a 50 free split. Good for Ryan. Hoffer will certainly have a library of interview videos in his career. There is room from everyone. A diversity of coverage is a good thing, for reporting and for sharing brief personal reflections with the thousands of swimmers out there who learn by watching such videos.
We also learned that Held can use the word “like” in a sentence as fast as anyone… but for my niece.
So are we pretending ryan hoffer doesn’t exist? First off congratulations to held and i wish him the best but i really wish this article wasnt quite so one sided. There is some incredible talent out there and i feel like its more of a service to the entire swimming community when we celebrate everyone’s successes in something like an article about how crazy fast sprinters are getting
“Cant stump the one that trumps”
-Boom sauce
Kind of a weird reaction.
I think if you look thru all the swim swam articles you’ll find a lot more Ryan Hoffer articles than Ryan Held articles. They (swimswam) are hardly pretending that “Ryan Hoffer doesn’t exist”. They are reporting on the meets as they happen. It is college championship season, so those are the results you are going to get right now. Hoffer isn’t in college yet, so no results from him this week.
The last big Ryan Hoffer results were back in December at the winter Junior Nationals. Every race he did got its own article and video here.
BoomSauce – this might be one of the worst comments in the history of SwimSwam. Thank you.