Drabot Blasts Personal Best 1:54 200 Fly as Cardinal Dominates NC State

STANFORD VS. NORTH CAROLINA STATE

• Results
• Hosted by Stanford
• Friday, November 3rd
• 25 Yards
• Dual Meet Format

FINAL TEAM SCORES:

The NC State Wolfpack traveled across the country for a dual meet against the NCAA champion Stanford women on Friday. The Cardinal was dominant in the match up, winning every race except the 50 free. That race was won by NC State’s reigning ACC Champion Ky-Lee Perry in 22.57.

• STANFORD: 189
• NC STATE: 104

American distance star Katie Ledecky did what she does best to get the ball rolling in the individual races. Ledecky dominated the 1000 free, turning in a 9:18.19 to finish 20 seconds ahead of NC State All-American Hannah Moore (9:38.29). She returned to battle with Perry in the 100 free, coming from behind to clip Perry 49.25 to 49.45. Notably absent in the sprints was Olympic champion Simone Manuel, who hasn’t competed for the Cardinal yet this season and didn’t compete at the USA vs. College Challenge meet due to a mild, undisclosed injury.

Ledecky didn’t attempt the distance sweep this time around. Instead, the Cardinal relied on Katie Drabot in the 500 free. At the 200, she and Moore flipped in identical splits of 1:53.18, but Drabot began to build an 8-tenth lead by the 400-yard mark. Moore tried to chase her down, hammering home in 27.09 down the final stretch, but Drabot had enough to hold her off in 4:43.20 to Moore’s 4:43.54.

Drabot had another close race with defending NCAA champion Ella Eastin in the 200 fly. She turned with a slight lead through the 100, 55.97 to 56.28, and was able to hold off Eastin’s charge on the final 50 to win it 1:54.49 to 1:54.70. That’s a lifetime best for Drabot by 5 seconds per the USA Swimming database, which lists her previous best time as a 1:59.79 from 2016.

Towards the end of the session, Drabot went on to win the 200 IM in 1:58.66, while Eastin won her other 2 individual races handily with times of 1:46.46 in the 200 free and 2:13.13 in the 200 breast.

Teammate Janet Hu joined them in taking multiple wins, swimming her signature 100 fly/100 back combo. In the 100 back, she went up against Ally Howe, the American Record holder, leading from start to finish in 51.89 to Howe’s 52.78. She kept the momentum going as she topped the 100 fly by over a second and a half, turning in a 52.62 for the sweep of her individual races.

PRESS RELEASE – STANFORD:

STANFORD, Calif. – Sophomore Katie Drabot won three events while senior Janet Huprevailed twice, pacing No. 1 Stanford’s 189-104 victory over NC State on Friday afternoon at Avery Aquatic Center.

Also contributing individual event victories for Stanford (3-0, 2-0 Pac-12) were junior Ella Eastin, senior Ally Howe, sophomore Katie Ledecky and junior Kim Williams.

The Cardinal returns to action on Nov. 16-18, competing in the Art Adamson Invite at College Station, Texas.

More details to follow.

PRESS RELEASE – NC STATE:

STANFORD, Calif. – While the final score was in favor of the NC State women’s swimming & diving team on Friday evening at the Avery Aquatic Center against No. 1 Stanford, it still accumulated an impressive array of times  competing in an outdoor pool against the nation’s best.

 Team Scores
#1 Stanford 189 def. #13 NCSU 104

Quoting the Coach
Swimming
“Definitely proud of the women,” said head coach Braden Holloway. “We’re going against the top team; this is the best team in college. The goal was to focus on what we can do, make improvements from week to week, obviously getting up and not being afraid to race, being aggressive but staying within ourselves, enjoying the moment, enjoying being over here and competing against a really good team; the girls did that. We had a good training week and a great training day yesterday; regardless of if they were tired they took the opportunity and made the most of it. Obviously Stanford is a really great program; the advantage for us was coming out here and learning more about ourselves, how we can handle some adversity and not being afraid to perform no matter who we’re up against. We did a pretty good job with that so it’s onto the next meet.

On Saturday morning we’re going to be going against another big team in the Cal Bears; we matchup a little bit differently with them than they we did against Stanford but it’s basically the same thing. How can we turn around tomorrow morning with energy and be ready to compete? That’s what it boils down to and again, learn from today and some of the mistakes we made, figure out how to improve on those and make sure we create it and do it. Looking forward to another day or racing and what our ladies bring.”

Wolfpack Relays
Elise Haan, Jacqueline Clabeaux, Krista Duffield & Ky-lee Perry performed admirably in the 200 medley relay as they finished second thanks to their time of 1:40.85 seconds. The 200 freestyle relay was a similar story; Duffield, Perry, Haan and Lupton finished second with a time of 1:31.58 seconds.

Top Individual Performances
Ky-lee Perry continued to show why she was last season’s ACC freshman of the year as she won the 50 freestyle in 22.57, an NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying time. Lexie Lupton also finished with a time of 23.58.

Perry came close to tasting victory again the 100 freestyle; her NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying time of 49.45 trailed only Katie Ledecky, who finished in 49.25.

As always, Hannah Moore had a strong showing in the 1000 freestyle as her time of 9:38.29 seconds earned her second-place finish behind Katie Ledecky. Moore’s time in the 1000 freestyle was an improvement from last weekend at Wisconsin when she completed the race in 9:40.71 seconds. She also finished second in the 500 freestyle; her time of 4:43.54 seconds trailed only Katie Drabot of Stanford who finished in 4:43.20 seconds.

Backstroke was a strong point for the Wolfpack; Elise Haan finished third in the 100 backstroke while also earning an NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying time thanks to her 54.13 finish. Lexie Lupton finished fourth and secured an NCAA ‘B’ cut in the 200 backstroke as she finished in 1:57.82 seconds and was trailed by Haan, whose time of 1:58.60 seconds was also an NCAA ‘B’ cut.

Krista Duffield had a strong showing in the 100 butterfly, finishing second with an NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying time of 54.25. Julia Poole continued to impress in the 200 IM; she finished third with an NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying time of 2:00.54 seconds.

Diving
In the 1-meter Madeline Kline placed third with a score of 255.68 while her score of 262.73 also earned third in the 3-meter.

NC State Event Winners
Women’s 50 freestyle: Ky-lee Perry – 22.57#

• # denotes NCAA ‘B’/Zone cut

Up Next
The Wolfpack women make the short trip to Berkeley, California, for a dual meet with No. 7 California tomorrow. The meet commences at 12:00 P.M. (ET) and the link to live results will be posted when available.