2019 NC STATE/GAC INVITE
- Thursday, November 21 – Saturday, November 23, 2019
- Greensboro Aquatic Center – Greensboro, NC
- Prelims 9:30 AM / Finals 5:30 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Live results
- Results also on Meet Mobile as “NC State GAC Invitational”
Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson was 50-point in the 100 fly and 100 back. Arizona State sophomore Cody Bybee hit lifetime-bests in a tough 100 fly/200 free double in Friday prelims of the NC State Invite.
The two doubles highlight a busy morning session for a number of athletes. Nelson, the reigning NCAA Swimmer of the Meet, moves into the NCAA lead in both the 100 fly (50.65) and 100 back (50.43) with blazing morning swims
The fly is a career-best for the Badger, who was a standout fly/back type in high school, but has been more of a backstroker/IMer of late. Nelson went 50.90 at mid-season in the 100 fly last year, and cuts three tenths already this year with finals still to come. Prior to this week, Tennessee’s Erika Brown was the national leader at 51.12, though Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil was 49 in an unofficial intrasquad swim.
Nelson also went 50.43 in the backstroke. Keep an eye out for a historic swim there tonight: last year, she went 49.67 at mid-season, and was a tick slower (50.50) in prelims than she was this morning. Nelson is the American record-holder there with a 49.18.
That should be a very nationally-relevant field tonight, with NC State star freshman Katharine Berkoff qualifying second. She was 52.05, but went 50.7 about this time last year as a high schooler.
The other big double was Bybee, a highly-touted recruit who swam most of the season for Arizona State but did not appear at either Pac-12s or NCAAs. Bybee hit two lifetime-bests this morning in a very tough 100 fly/200 free double. Bybee was 46.24 to lead the 100 fly – that’s three tenths faster than his career-best, set as a high schooler in 2017. Bybee went just 47.4 last season, though he didn’t really get a short course rest meet.
Bybee returned to pace the 200 free in 1:34.01. That’s a drop of a hundredth of a second from his best, also a high school time. Bybee went 1:35.4 at best last season.
Also in both of those fields is NC State senior Coleman Stewart, one of the top individual swimmers in the NCAA this season. Stewart was 46.29 in the fly and 1:35.51 in the free. His teammate Hunter Tapp had a noteworthy swim, going 1:35.11 in the 200 to smash his personal best by a second. The freshman was just off his lifetime-best in the 50 last night.
Other event leaders on day 2:
- NC State’s quartet of NCAA scoring hopefuls went 1-4 in the women’s 400 IM. Junior Kate Moore was 4:08.09, which is an improvement on her 4:10 season-best that ranked #2 in the NCAA heading into this week. Sophomore Emma Muzzy (4:10.17) is hundredths off last year’s NCAA invite time in second.
- Junior Eric Knowles was 3:47.80 in the men’s race. That would be the fastest time in the nation, though the national ranks are probably adding a lot of times from other invites this week as well. More importantly, the time is more than a second faster than what Knowles went at mid-season last year. Knowles went on to go 3:42.0 at ACCs, though he just missed NCAA scoring.
- Duke sophomore Melissa Pish leads a tough 200 free field. The Blue Devil was 1:45.73, only seven tenths off a lifetime-best. Pish was 1:45.5 at mid-season last year and cut another half-second at ACCs. Getting under 1:45 tonight would give her a solid shot at an NCAA invite time. (It took 1:45.12 to get invited last year).
- NC State sophomore Sophie Hansson is the runaway top breaststroke qualifier. She was 59.10 this morning. Prior to this morning, only two women had broken a minute this year, and Hansson could be the first under 59 tonight, pending the results of other invites. Arizona State’s Silja Kansakoski also broke a minute (59.84) this morning.
- Wisconsin’s MJ Mao leads the men’s field by more than a second. He was 53.09 this morning, two tenths faster than his mid-season invite time a year ago. Mao ended up going 52.2 at Big Tens and could be in the hunt for a sub-52 this season based on his improvement so far.
- Sun Devil Zachary Poti led the men’s 100 back, going 46.22. Wisconsin’s Cam Tysoe was also under 47, going 46.98.
