The home pool ruled on Friday night in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Florida State Seminoles picked up a pair of wins for each their men’s and women’s programs against ACC foes Georgia Tech and Florida State.
The scores:
Men
Florida State 213 – Georgia Tech 65
Florida State 162 – NC State 136
NC State 193 – Georgia Tech 95
Women
Florida State 239 – Georgia Tech 61
Florida State 157 – NC State 143
NC State 224 – Georgia Tech 76
The North Carolina State women got off to a blazing start in this meet, going 1-2 in the 200 medley relay. Despite Florida State getting a solid mid-season 22.7 anchor from Tiffany Oliver the leadoff legs of 25.6 and 26.6, respectively, from Alexia Zevnik and Hannah Freyman, plus a pair of very good butterfly legs, were too much for the Seminoles to make up.
From there-out, however, this meet went largely the way of the Garnet and Gold. This gave new Florida State head coach his first two wins int he ACC (for men and women).
Madison Jacobi kicked things off with a lifetime best in the 1000 free by six seconds: marking a 9:51.65 for an easy win. Jacobi, a sophomore, was on fire on Friday night under the lights, as she also won the 500 free in 4:53.79 – three-and-a-half seconds better than NC State’s Kristin Connors (4:57.28).
Julia Henkel followed Jacobi’s win in the 1000 free with a much tighter, though equally hard-fought, win in the 200 free. She took a big lead at the halfway mark – between a second and a second-and-a-half ahead of the field. NC State’s Lotta Nevalainen reeled her in big in the last 75 yards, but just ran out of space. Henkel took the win in 1:50.46, with Nevalainen 2nd in 1:50.89 and Kaitlyn Dressel 3rd in 1:51.00.
Florida State would end up sweeping the freestyle events at this meet. Oliver won the 50, with Dressel 2nd in 23.20 and Riki Bonnema 3rd in 23.38; Oliver and Dressel again went 1-2 in the 100 free, but this time the margin was only .01 seconds (50.16-50.17). The Seminoles have the best sprint duo in the ACC this season in those two, and by year’s end they may prove to be one of the top 5 or so in the country as well.
While Florida State dominated the individual events, it wasn’t a total sweep as a few holes emerged in the Seminoles’ lineup.
For example, the Wolf Pack went 1-2-3 in the 100 backstroke, with Zevnik winning in 54.81 and Zina Grogg taking 2nd in 55.65. Zevnik won again in the 200 backstroke, going 1:58.77. That’s the second-best time in the conference so far this season.
This time, it was Freyman who placed 2nd in 2:01.67, with Florida State’s McKayla Lightbourn touching 3rd in 2:03.11.
Other than that, however, it was all Seminoles. Henkel won the 400 IM in 4:20.32, and Sami Pochowski swept the breaststroke events in 1:02.22 and 2:18.66
In the men’s meet, it was the Seminoles’ ACC-Record breaking 200 medley relay that took the opening relay in 1:28.72, with North Carolina State taking second in 1:29.64. The Seminole relay was Pavel Sankovich (22.19), Jason Coombs (25.42), Connor Knight (21.47), and Paul Murray (19.64). That anchor from Murray was really impressive, and the only new leg on that relay from last year is the freshman Coombs on the breaststroke. That’s where NC State will hope to capitalize at the ACC Championships, as Ian Bishop is very good (he split 24.8 already at this meet).
Unlike their women’s team, the Georgia Tech men’s team had a much bigger impact on this meet. That began with Yuval Safra, who won the first men’s individual race of the meet, the 1000 free, in 9:23.58. He finished ahead of Florida State’s Jack Deedrick (9:26.21) and NC State’s Austin Snyder (9:26.31).
Swimming against two teams that rely very much on their sprinting, Safra picked up a second win in the 500 free, going 4:33.70 there to take a much slimmer, but still convincing, win over NC State’s Alex Hamilton (4:34.75).
NC State followed Safra’s win by showing that this was going to be a tight meet by being the third team to win an individual event. For them, it was Jonathan Boffa, who was a 1:37.47 to win the 200 free. Georgia Tech’s Andrew Kosic was 2nd in 1:38.84, and Florida State’s top performer was Jemal LeGrand in just 4th at 1:40.36.
Florida State got their first individual win of hte meet in the 100 backstroker, where sec0nd-year senior Pavel Sankovich was a 48.43 to run away with the 100 backstroke. He bested NC State’s Andreas Schiellerup who was a 49.71 for 2nd.
NC State’s best weapon, Bishop, showed up again in the 100 breaststroke. There, he won in 54.86, but it was Florida State’s Jared Pike who was 2nd in 55.89. Coombs, who swam the medley leg for Florida State, was only 4th in 56.49.
Florida State fought back with a 1:46.82 from Connor Knight in the men’s 200 fly. That beat North Carolina State’s Christian McCurdy was 2nd in 1:47.46. Those swims are season bests for both men, and the second-and-third best times in the conference so far this year.
Florida St. picked up back-to-back wins when Murray swam a 20.16 in the 50 free to beat Simonas Bilis in 20.44. Georgia Tech’s Kosic showed good versatility to place 3rd in 20.59.
Florida State’s men then dominated the diving, taking the 1-4 spots (Georgia Tech and NC State each only traveled a single male diver). Bradley would say after the meet “”Thank God for diving tonight…Those guys and girls were solid and consistent for us.”
Though not quite a deciding factor in the score against North Carolina State men’s meet (it certainly was in the women’s meet), the meet would’ve been nearly a dead-even tie if diving points were ignored. That included matching wins from Florida Sate freshman Dominick Giordano on the 1-meter and 3-meter.
NC State’s Jonathan Boffa knocked off Murray in the 100 free to end the Seminoles’ streak with a 44.03 to Murray’s 44.41. That is the best time in the ACC this year for Boffa, and ranks him as tied for second on best in the country (only .01 seconds behind Louisville’s de Lucca).
Florida State again took the lion’s share of the scoring in the 200 backstroke, with Josh Friedel winning in 1:48.76 and NC State’s Mike Camper 2nd in 1:48.91. This race wound up being an incredible last 50 yards. The top 4 swimmers were all nose-to-nose going into the final 50 yards, but Friedel and Camper (who has a history as an IM’er and freestyler primarily) took off on the last 50 to leave the competition in the dust. Though Camper was a bit faster coming home, he ran out of room at the touch.
Bishop scored another win, his second on the day, by taking the 200 breaststroke in 2:02.69. Juan Sequera took 2nd in 2:03.38 for Florida State to hold the bleeding a bit.
Florida State would just about seal the meet in the 100 fly, where Sankovich won again in 47.76 ahead of his teammate Knight in 47.85. Georgia Tech’s Nico van Duijn took 3rd in 48.63.
McCurdy improved on his first individual event by winning the men’s 400 IM in 4:00.12, with the aforementioned Camper touching 2nd in 4:01.39.
North Carolina State pulled off a win to close the meet in the 200 free relay with a 1:20.45, beating Florida State who was a 1:20.78. Last year, Florida State was by-far the fastest team in the conference in this relay, and though they bring back Murray (who split 20.32 leading off) and are therefore still contenders, they graduated three of the four guys on last year’s relay.
That means teams like NC State (who ranked 2nd in the ACC last year, and didn’t graduate any of the four guys) will challenge them at year’s end, especially if Boffa – who anchored in 19.55 – continues to swim well.
Hated losing meets because of diving. Never felt right winning because of it.
But if they didn’t spend their scholarships on diving and put that money toward swimming, you still would have lost! Sorry
Diving made a difference vs NCST but not against GT. They beat GT pretty soundly. GT is bad….the men have a couple good ones, but their women are weak. One has to remember they have strong diving but they put some scholarships into them that they can’t use for swimming. Until it is swimming only, diving is part of the equation!!!