NC State’s Depth Delivers a 5th Consecutive ACC Men’s Title

2019 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 27th to Saturday, March 2nd | Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00pm
• Where: Greensboro Aquatics Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: NC State Wolfpack (results)
• Live Results: here
• Streaming: WatchESPN (subscription required)
• Psych Sheet
• Championship Central

FINAL SCORES

1. NC State: 1396.5
2. Louisville: 1135.5
3. UVA: 1108
4. VT: 820.5
5. FSU: 819
6. ND: 687
7. Duke: 624
8. GT: 550
9. PITT: 508
10. UNC: 388.5
11. Miami (FL): 161
12. BC: 159

NC State decisively took home its 5th consecutive ACC men’s team title this past weekend. They were able to win the meet by 261 points despite winning only 3 events, compared to 13 event wins last year. That is a staggering difference in inidividual champions, so let’s dive into how they were still able to win by such a large margin.

The answer, really, is pretty simple. Every Wolfpack swimmer or diver who competed at the meet scored points. All but one scored 20+ points, and 10 scored 50+ points. Their level of top-to-bottom scoring just simply was unmatched by other teams. Comparing the NC State men’s effort to win the title to the Wolfpack women’s title run the previous week, there are some similarities, but also some notable differences.

Starting with the similarities, both teams were weak in the 200 free, relative to their other freestyle events. Additionally, they were both the highest scoring teams in the 500 and 1650 free. That leads into the differences. While the men were the leading team in the 1650, they were only so by 11 points. On the other hand, the Wolfpack women scored 53 points more than the next highest team in the mile. Additionally, the Wolpack women were dominant (to put it lightly) in the IMs, while NC State was outscored signifantly in those events.

There were some areas where the men significantly outperformed their female counterparts, namely the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly. The 100 fly was actually their highest scoring event, reeling in 114 points.

These similarities and differences are interesting to note because NC State is a combined program. Of course, this isn’t definitive in any way, as there may still have been differences between how the men’s and women’s teams prepared for and approached ACCs with regards to their season schedules.

One last note, despite NC State’s senior class scoring the most points out of any class from any team at the meet, the Wolfpack is still returning the most points next year, making them the early favorite for a 6th consecutive ACC title