ACC Day 2 Ups/Mids/Downs: NC State Men On Early Pace To Break Total Points Record

2023 ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 14 to Saturday, February 18, 2023
• Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
• Defending Champions:
  • Women: Virginia (3x)
  • Men: NC State (1x)
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For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

Team Scores Thru Day 1

Women

1. UNC-Chapel Hill – 202
2. Virginia – 166
3. Louisville – 160
4. NC State – 140
5. Notre Dame – 126
6. Florida State – 118
7. Miami (FL) – 112
8. Virginia Tech – 111
9. Duke – 107
10. Pitt – 84
11. Georgia Tech – 76
12. BC – 60

Men

1. NC State – 196
2. UNC-Chapel Hill – 147
3. Notre Dame – 145
4. Virginia Tech – 137
5. Pitt – 133.5
6. Louisville – 130.5
7. Florida State – 115
8. Virginia – 104
9. Duke – 82
10. Georgia Tech/Miami (FL) – 74
11. –
12. BC – 32

Last year, the NC State men reclaimed the ACC title in dominant fashion, putting up a total score of 1501.5 points, the most in ACC history since the conference introduced expanded scoring. On Day 2 of that meet, they went 12/1/1 for Ups/Mids/Downs. This year, they’ve got a line of 11/3/0.

So while their prelims scoring is behind where they were last year–321 to 336.5 in 2022–their scored prelim+actual puts them on track to be ahead of last year’s record breaking pace. At this meet, the scored prelim + actual is 517 points, compared to 420.5 points at this point in 2022.

In large part, that’s thanks to the ridiculous depth they displayed throughout the session: they have four swimmers in the ‘A’ final of both the 500 freestyle and 200 IM, ensuring that half of those heats will have NC State caps.

Notre Dame is certainly happy to have Jack Hoagland back, who returned to ACC Championship competition and grabbed second-seed in the 500 freestyle ‘A’ final. But he wasn’t the only member of the Fighting Irish making an ‘A’ final; Chris Guiliano dropped a tenth in the 50 freestyle, earning the #2 seed behind Youssef Ramadan. That brings Notre Dame’s daily line to 2/2/3, a big improvement from last year’s 0/2/3.

Also in the middle of the conference, Florida State has three less final swims than they did on this day last year. However, this year they have two ‘A’ finalists and last year they had none, which means they are projected to score more than they did on Day 2 last year.

On the women’s side, Virginia is expected to take over the lead for the conference title. they came into the day running second behind UNC-Chapel Hill, who was powered by their divers going 1-3 on the 3-meter during Day 1.

The Cavalier women have 13 finals swims, including six ‘A’ finalists and another six ‘B’ finalists. Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh are the runaway favorites in the 200 IM and 500 freestyle, and Ella Nelson is seeded second in the 500 free by about a half second, making it a real possibility that Virginia could sweep the Day 2 individual events.

Like the NC State men, the UVA women are projected to outscore their 2022 selves. This year, their projected prelims score is 268.5, last year it was 255.5 and NC State was actually projected to outscore them by 10 points. The Wolfpack women have fallen off a bit from that total as this year, they’re projected to score 202 points, with both Virginia and Louisville (210 projected points) anticipated to score more.

At the other end of the conference, a team to pay attention to is Miami (FL). They had a strong morning session, putting two swimmers into ‘B’ finals and three into ‘C’ finals. That’s three more finals swims than they had on this day last year, and their projected to score 47 points compared to 10 last year.

DAY 2 UPS/MIDS/DOWNS – WOMEN

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

SCORED PRELIMS — WOMEN

1. UVA – 268.5
2. Louisville – 210
3. NC State – 202
4. Virginia Tech – 90
5. Duke – 82
6. UNC-Chapel Hill – 64
7. Miami (FL) – 47
8. Georgia Tech – 43.5
9. Notre Dame – 37
10. Pitt – 28
11. Florida St – 14
12. BC – 0

SCORED PRELIM + ACTUAL — WOMEN

1. UVA – 434.5
2. Louisville – 370
3. NC State – 342
4. UNC-Chapel Hill – 266
5. Virginia Tech – 201
6. Duke – 189
7. Notre Dame – 163
8. Miami (FL) – 159
9. Florida State – 132
10. Georgia Tech – 119.5
11. Pitt – 112
12. BC – 60

DAY 2 UPS/MIDS/DOWNS – MEN

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

SCORED PRELIMS — MEN

1. NC State – 321
2. Virginia – 159
3. Louisville – 152
4. Virginia Tech – 120
5. Notre Dame/Florida State – 97
6. –
7. Georgia Tech – 82
8. UNC-Chapel Hill – 30
9. Pitt – 24
10. Duke – 4
11. BC – 0

SCORED PRELIMS + ACTUAL — MEN

1. NC State – 517
2. Louisville – 282.5
3. Virginia – 263
4. Virginia Tech – 257
5. Notre Dame – 242
6. Florida State – 212
7. UNC-Chapel Hill – 177
8. Pitt – 157.5
9. Georgia Tech – 156
10. Duke – 86
11. Miami (FL) – 74
12. BC – 32