2021 ACC Men’s Swimming Championships
- When: Wednesday, February 24th to Saturday, February 27th Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (29x, 6th-straight) (results)
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central: Here
- Detailed Timeline: Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
- Live Results
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.
The 2021 ACC Men’s Championships was already shaping up to be a three-way race for first between six-time defending champions NC State, Louisville, and Virgina Tech, when things got even more dramatic last night when NC State’s 400 medley relay was disqualified, costing the Wolfpack over 50 points.
NC State bounced back this morning with a strong session, and is projected to outscore Louisville and Virginia Tech by about 30 points in the four events that had prelims this morning, but NC State will also need its swimmers to pull through in the timed finals of the 1650 free that will start this afternoon.
Day 4 Ups/Mids/Downs
| All | 200 Back | 100 Free | 200 Breast | 200 Fly | |
| NC State | 6/8/3 | 2/3/0 | 1/2/1 | 0/2/0 | 3/1/2 |
| VT | 6/4/3 | 1/1/1 | 2/1/0 | 1/1/2 | 2/1/0 |
| Louisville | 6/3/3 | 2/1/0 | 2/2/2 | 1/0/1 | 1/0/0 |
| UVA | 6/3/0 | 2/1/0 | 1/1/0 | 2/1/0 | 1/0/0 |
| UNC | 2/3/4 | 1/1/2 | 0/0/2 | 1/1/0 | 0/1/0 |
| PITT | 2/3/3 | 0/0/1 | 1/0/0 | 1/1/2 | 0/2/0 |
| GT | 2/1/0 | 0/0/0 | 0/1/0 | 1/0/0 | 1/0/0 |
| ND | 1/3/7 | 0/1/2 | 0/0/2 | 1/1/2 | 0/1/1 |
| Florida St | 1/3/5 | 0/0/1 | 1/1/1 | 0/1/0 | 0/1/3 |
| Duke | 0/1/4 | 0/0/1 | 0/0/0 | 0/0/1 | 0/1/2 |
And here’s what it looks like if you add in the mile seeds:
| 1650 | Total | |
| NC State | 3/1/0 | 9/9/3 |
| VT | 0/1/1 | 6/5/4 |
| Louisville | 1/0/1 | 7/3/4 |
| UVA | 1/2/0 | 7/5/0 |
| UNC | 1/0/1 | 3/3/5 |
| PITT | 1/0/0 | 3/3/3 |
| GT | 0/1/2 | 2/2/2 |
| ND | 1/1/1 | 2/4/8 |
| Florida St | 0/2/1 | 1/5/6 |
| Duke | 0/0/1 | 0/1/5 |
Day 4 Scores By Event
| NC State | VT | Louisville | UVA | ND | UNC | PITT | Florida St | GT | Duke | |
| 200 Back | 95.0 | 49.5 | 72.0 | 70.0 | 24.5 | 42.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| 100 Free | 55.0 | 65.0 | 95.5 | 42.0 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 28.0 | 42.0 | 17.0 | 0.0 |
| 200 Breast | 26.0 | 52.0 | 34.0 | 66.5 | 58.0 | 37.5 | 43.0 | 14.0 | 26.0 | 5.0 |
| 200 Fly | 90.0 | 69.0 | 32.0 | 24.0 | 23.0 | 17.0 | 28.0 | 23.0 | 27.0 | 29.0 |
Day 4 Projected Scores
*Not including the 1650 or 400 free relay
- Louisville – 1058.5
- Virginia Tech – 1033.5
- NC State – 1026
- Virginia – 813.5
- UNC – 672.5
- Florida State – 621
- Georgia Tech – 577
- Notre Dame – 539
- Pitt – 389
- Duke – 307
- Miami (FL) – 207
- Boston College – 148
The projections show that NC State is really going to have to bring it in the mile. The Wolfpack is in the driver’s seat in that event, with three swimmers seeded in the top eight, and another one in the next eight. Louisville also has four swimmers swimming, with two of them seeded outside of scoring range. Virgina Tech has two swimmers seeded to score, and one swimmer outside of scoring range. If things were to go according to seed, NC State should be able to outscore Louisville and Virgina Tech by roughly 50 points, which would be enough to put them on top, depending on how the finals swims turn out.
The bottom line is that for the first time in a long while, we’ve got a three-way race for the ACC title that could come down to the final relay, setting up an exciting final night of racing in Greensboro.
This title jinxed the Wolfpack. They are done.
Are you factoring in a false start for State’s relay tonight?
It has been interesting watching UNC fall from 1st place after diving to 2nd, to 3rd…to 5th. I honestly thought they could not hold on to 5th. But it looks like they will. Thank goodness for the 300 POINTS from diving, I hope the Tarheels are paying their diving coach well. Almost half of their points will come from diving.
That is a really cool photo! Looking like the wolves (in black hoods) hoping to devour little red riding hood (Louisville/VT)! What’s for dinner? Birds! Cardinal and Turkey, yum! LOL
Nice snap Jaylynn!
kind of an evil empire type look going there.
The 1650 looks really different if you plug in times from the Louisville invitational:
Curley 14:54.1 for 15:09
Siritsev 15:00.9 for 15:37
Smith 15:13 for 15:23
Klawiter is a transfer from Utah with a best of 15:00.7
Curley and Sibirtsev both qualified for NCAAs last year (the week before ACCs). NCSU can score 100 points in the 1650, but UofL can easily score 65.
I mean, maybe it’s worth mentioning that one of the swimmers in the race was the 2018 Junior World Championship silver medalist in the 800 LCM (7:48.05).
I think State has the upper hand for several reasons, primarily their fantastic past 18 team depth. It could go back and… Read more »
Sirbitsev (Louisville) at 14:51.33 in the second heat.
Should Q for NCAAs, probably scores top 8 today.
Looks like he back split it on the order of 7:30.3/7:21.0
Thanks Kacper (and the official) for going those extra few inches! Makes for the most exciting swim meet session in years. While not typically heavily attended, if this had been a normal year this session would have been blowing the roof off the GAC.
I saw that Kacper did a flip into the water for backstroke start. Isn’t that illegal? I thought swimmers were required to enter feet first? Also when I saw him do that, minimally I thought delay of meet and being disrespectful of his fellow competitors.
No sure about the legality of it, but if ever you wanted pointers on looking like a tool bag look no further.
If he did he flip – did he wind up on his feet?
Waits for all other swimmers to jump in first, then back flips way out, takes his time getting back to the wall and set. Then a big show on the lane line when he wins. We all love to see a great swim but it’s all ruined when you don’t show some class bro.
The flip was cool. The sitting on the lane line was a bit excessive
Nope. Rules say ‘immediately enter the water’ at first whistle. That’s all. Only high school says ‘step in’. At second whistle he assumed the starting position without ‘undue delay’. A few guys dove in. Why make a deal about that? Nothing unsportsmanlike or wrong with making it fun
I remember seeing backstrokers before the 2010s dive in and basically warm up with a swim back to the wall. When was that outlawed?
Shaine Casas does the same thing
But he is American and we like him. So he can do whatever he wants 🙂
Wow. All eyes here tonight