2022 ACC SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Tuesday, February 15th to Saturday, February 19th Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00 pm (Tuesday 11:00am/4:30pm)
- Where: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central: Here
- Detailed Timeline: Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
- Live Results
he NC State men recaptured their ACC championships in dominant fashion this week, winning by a margin of 309 points with a total score of 1501.5. That’s the highest number of points by one team since the ACC expanded scoring in 2014. That passes the previous high of 1457 from 2018. That’s also the 3rd-largest margin of victory in ACC men’s history, surpassed only by NC State’s 362-point victory over Clemson in 1977 and their 334.5-point victory over Louisville in 2016.
NC State was one of the top teams in the conference from 1954-1985, but then only won one other ACC title in the next 30 years. Head coach Braden Holloway took over the NC State program in 2011, and he and his staff have built the Wolfpack into a conference and national powerhouse. The men won six-straight ACC titles from 2015 to 2020, then slipped last year after a medley relay disqualification caused them to lose to Louisville by a scant two points.
Today’s win gives the NC State men their 31st ACC championship, including one co-championship (1956), and two tri-championships (1961 and 1963).
That’s nearly double the number of championships of any school. UNC has won 17 times (13 of which have been outright) and UVA has won 16 times.
This year, it was a full-team effort, as every swimmer and diver on the roster scored in at least one event. Junior Hunter Tapp led with 80 individual points after top five finishes in the 200 free, 100 back, and 200 back. Five different men won individual victories, and the Wolfpack won every individual freestyle event except the 100 free.
NC State Victories
- 800 free relay – Sam Hoover, Luke Miller, Eric Knowles, Hunter Tapp – 6:08.35
- 500 free – Ross Dant – 4:10.35
- 50 free – David Curtiss – 18.74
- 200 free – Luke Miller – 1:32.46
- 100 back – Kacper Stokowski – 44.74
- 400 medley relay – Kacper Stokowski, Rafal Kusto, Nyls Korstanje, Sam Hoover – 3:01.88
- 1650 free – Will Gallant – 14:33.40
- 400 free relay – Luke Miller, Bartosz Piszczorowicz, Noah Henderson, Hunter Tapp – 2:46.18
Conference Roster
- Bayne Bennett – 36
- Noah Bowers – 74
- Arsenio Bustos – 56
- David Curtiss – 43
- Ross Dant – 75
- Will Gallant – 75
- Aiden Hayes – 63
- Noah Henderson – 72.5
- Sam Hoover – 64
- Giovanni Izzo – 54
- Eric Knowles – 78
- Nyls Korstanje – 74
- Rafal Kusto – 43
- Luke Miller – 74
- Patrick O’Brien – 29
- Bartosz Piszczorowicz – 54
- James Plage – 67
- Matt Sexton – 7
- Kacper Stokowski – 73
- Hunter Tapp – 80
Next month, the Wolfpack will head to the NCAA Championships. They seem to be a lock to improve on last year’s 8th-place performance there, but they haven’t been able to finish higher than 4th. Despite their great performance this week, they’ll have a tall order to get past Texas, Cal, and Florida, all of whom are also looking incredibly strong this year. Still, given the depth of their current roster, and the incredibly recruiting classes they have coming in, the Wolfpack should continue to be on the risen in the years to come.
Final Team Standings
- NC State – 1501.5
- Louisville – 1192.5
- Virginia Tech – 1054
- UVA – 1041
- Georgia Tech – 742.5
- Florida State – 676
- UNC – 529
- Notre Dame – 474
- Pitt – 431
- Duke – 341
- Boston College – 195.5
- Miami (FL) – 116
Wolfpack looks like a serious top 3 threat now. They don’t quite have the high end scoring to match up with Florida, but the depth they have across all disciplines makes up for that. The Gators are loaded in freestyle but thin across the strokes, whereas this crew from NC State is only hurting in breaststroke, and packs elite relays that can challenge for titles across the board (as long as they can find a remedy for their chronic false start problems). If they can manage to get Norgaard and Ponti to show up they’ll be lethal next year.
Personally I don’t think Cal is as strong this year as they were last year. Retaining key seniors with that… Read more »
NCSU left no doubt this past week. They came back hungry and dominated the ACC this year. Congrats to Braden and his staff on a job well done, and congrats to the swimmers for swimming their hearts out. Truly a great team effort.
2022 NC State Men Top 9 Men
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Hunter Tapp 80 points
Eric Knowles 78 points
Ross Dant 75 points
Will Gallant 75 points
Noah Bowers. 74 points
Nyls Korstanje 74 points
Lucas Miller 74 points
Kacper Stokowski 73 points
Noah Henderson 72.5 points
2021 NC State Men Top 9 Men
__________________
Erge Gezmis 71 points
Eric Knowles 70 points
Noah Bowers 69 points
Ross Dant 67 points
Kacper Stokowski 67 points
Hunter Tapp 65 points
Lucas Miller 58 points
Noah Henderson 57 points
Giovanni Izzo 57 points
Class breakdown (2022 NC State Men)
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number of freshmen:… Read more »
Last year the highest scorer for NC State was Erge Gezmis with 71 points. Half of their swimmers this year scored more than him.
This year event winner and phenom David Curtiss, and Polish breastroke superstar Rafal Kusto scored the least amount of points at 43. Last years squad had 7 people score less than that.
Amazing how much a team can improve both top end and depth in the ACC over just a year. Interesting to see how it will translate to NCAA’s
Let’s talk Pittsburgh. Women’s Team 11th out of 12 teams. Men’s Team 9th out of 12 teams. Why are we still at the bottom of the pool? Is it recruiting? Is it coaching? The ACC needs a better swim team from the Conference Football Champions.
So basically Braden Holloway found an old fixer upper and brought it back to its glory days
Wolf
PACK
PACK
The most dominant sports program in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. No other sports team on either female or male side has more conference titles.
Bunch of champions in Raleigh!
Not even close.
Chapel Hill has exponentially more championships than Raleigh.
But @JosephS is correct. For a single sports team, State men’s swimming has more ACC Championships than even Anson’s dominant women’s soccer team because there haven’t even been 30 ACC Women’s Soccer Championships.