Coleman Stewart Sets ACC Records For 3rd Time Today with 44.36 Leadoff

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
• Day 3 Heat Sheets

Coleman Stewart‘s 5th 100 of the day was his best. After swimming the 100 fly/back double in prelims and finals, and hitting 44.44 on both of his 100 back swims today, it was reasonable to expect Stewart to be a little slower leading off the Wolfpack’s 400 medley relay.

Nothing doing for the junior, who blasted a 44.36 to lower his own ACC meet and overall conference records by 0.08s. He still sits just 0.01s behind John Shebeat for #3 all-time, with only Shebat, Ryan Murphy, and Nick Thoman ahead of him.

Comparative Splits:

• Stewart, 2018 ACC Finals – 21.60/22.94 = 44.54
• Stewart, 2019 ACC Prelims – 21.69/22.75 – 44.44
• Stewart, 2019 ACC Finals – 21.31/23.13 = 44.44
• Stewart, 2019 4MR Leadoff – 21.77/22.59 = 44.36

Stewart took it out slower than he did either this morning or earlier this evening, and the results paid off, as he came back in 22.59.

After the race, Stewart told SwimSwam that he wasn’t expecting to go 44.4 even once today, much less two or three times, and that even as a 21 year-old college junior he was “still learning how to swim that race.”

Depending on how NC State chooses to put together its relay lineup, Stewart will get to swim the 100 back anywhere between two and four more times next month at the NCAA championships, where he is the reigning champion in the event.