2025 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships
- February 18-22, 2025
- Greensboro Aquatic Center — Greensboro, North Carolina
- Championship Central
- Live Results
The ACCs newest members certainly started off well, going 1-2 and 2-4 on the men’s and women’s side respectively. However, it wasn’t only those teams swimming fast – here are 12 swims that you might have missed.
Patrick Hussey – UNC – Men’s 200 free
Hussey started off day 1 with a bang, swimming a PB of 1:32.31 leading off UNC’s 800 free relay after splitting 18.8 to anchor the 200 medley, but his best swim came on day 3. He dropped another chunk of time to go 1:31.68, a total drop of 1.32 seconds as he finished second behind Henry McFadden. That time would have just missed the ‘A’ final at NCAAs last year, and is thereabouts again this year. His second hundred was a big reason for the drop – he had the fastest in the field in 46.95, and moved up on every 50 (7th-4th-3rd-2nd).
Liam Custer – Stanford – Men’s 1650 Free
Custer made headlines in 2020 when he smashed the 15-16 NAG in 14:37.86 but had regressed initially at Stanford. He’s been working back towards that time, but took a massive step forward at ACCs. His first PB in the event in 4 years took second place as he went 14:36.44, beating out pre-race favourite Lucas Henveaux. His next step will be following that up at NCAAs – he was 17 seconds slower there than at Pac-12s last year, missing scoring entirely. He’s in good shape to bring home significant points though: his two swims this year have been 14:40 and 14:36, both of which would have been top-10 last year.
Logan Robinson – FSU – Men’s 200 fly
Robinson has had a big freshman year already for Florida State, having lowered his 200 fly PB by nearly four seconds in little over a month when he swam 1:41.04 at midseason. That’s almost certainly an NCAA qualification time, and would be a toss-up to score, but after his 1:40.34 at ACCs, he’s potentially on track to make the ‘A’ final. He’s got a phenomenal second hundred that should stand him in good stead to run others down – he had the second fastest at ACCs (52.35), behind only winner Andrei Minakov. His dropoff from the second to fourth 50 was only 2.7%: ignoring Minakov again (whose final 50 was phenomenal) one else in the ‘A’ final was under 4.9%.
Carly Novelline – Virginia – Women’s 200 Fly
You might have seen the 100 back-200 fly double Novelline swam on day 3, but it’s worth pointing out just how good her 200 fly final was. She was 2.7 seconds quicker than her PB from midseason, and was incredibly close to coming home sub-60 (1:00.06). She would easily have made the ‘A’ final with that time in the morning, where she would have finished seventh behind six of the top nine swimmers in the NCAA this year. She’s currently just in scoring position for NCAAs – that could be key to her chances for when Virginia inevitably have to leave qualifiers at home.
Oleksandr Zheltyakov – NC State – Men’s 200 back
An Olympic finalist and European gold medallist, Zheltyakov seems to have arrived at NC State with little fanfare. ACCs was his fourth meet for the Wolfpack and he went 1:38.78 to take fourth in the 200 back, dropping nearly two seconds from his yards best. As someone who goes 1:55.3 in long course and isn’t known for his turns – he’s better in long course than short course meters – he’s taken to yards incredibly quickly. A 1:38 is a probable ‘A’ final already, and he should be dangerous in March.
Kaii Winkler – NC State – Men’s 400 free relay
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Winkler beat his pre-college best of 41.96 for the first time, going 41.95, but now that he’s over the hump he tumbled down the other side at ACCs. He was quicker than that time in all three flat start 100s he swam, going 41.86 and 41.76 individually before leading off the second-place 400 free relay in 41.39, the fastest lead-off in the field. It has been improvements on his second 50 which has been the reason for this – after coming back in 21.9s in his individual swims he stormed home in 21.51 to run down Bjorn Seeliger and Michel Arkhangelskiy on the relay.
Max Wilson – FSU – Men’s 400 medley relay
Wilson was ‘only’ a ‘B’ finalist in the 100 backstroke at ACCs but his best swim came on the medley relay. Making use of a strong back end, he dropped nearly half a second from his PB from last year to go 44.82, a time that would have placed second in the individual event behind fellow FSU swimmer Michel Arkhangelskiy. He qualified for NCAAs last year, finishing 23rd, but looks likely to score this year – he’s currently the 6th fastest swimmer in the NCAA.
Camille Henveaux – Cal – Women’s 500 free
You’ll be much more familiar with Lucas Henveaux, but his sister Camille is an accomplished distance freestyler in her own right. In her first year at Cal she’s still adjusting to yards, but something seemed to click at ACCs. She dropped nine seconds from her entry time with the 4:40.14 she swam in finals, which would almost certainly be enough for NCAA qualification in any normal year – the fact that she’s likely just outside the bubble right now with that time is testament to the incredible depth this year.
Julia Dennis – Louisville – Women’s 50 free
Dennis was an NCAA ‘A’ finalist in this event just last year, but has switched into another gear at ACCs. She showed an indication something big may be in store with a 20.87 anchor on Louisville’s third-place medley relay and then started off day 2 finals with a 20.78 split in the 200 freestyle relay. In the 50 freestyle, she clocked 21.08 to finish less than half a second behind Gretchen Walsh – 3rd fastest in the NCAA this year and a half-second drop from her PB from March last year.
Sophie Yendell – Pitt – Women’s 50 free
An ACC ‘A’ finalist last year in the event where she set her previous PB of 21.83, Yendell swam faster than that on three occasions on Day 2. The Pitt 5th year went 21.68 to qualify fourth into the final, 21.40 to lead off the 200 freestyle relay and finally 21.30 to finish an agonizing fourth behind Claire Curzan. She had a big day 1 as well, splitting a 22.05 on the fly leg of Pitt’s medley relay that stands as the #10 split all time.
Spencer Nicholas – Virginia – Men’s 200 IM
One of the brightest sparks for Virginia along with David King before their big freshman influx next year, Nicholas hadn’t yet swam the 200IM at college. He had a PB of 1:44.99 from back in high school, but was entered at ACCs with no time and swam out of heat 1. That didn’t stop him from making the ‘A’ final, as he made the most of his strong fly and free legs to drop over two seconds. He shaved another couple of tenths off in the final to go 1:42.67 and finish fifth, notably beating out last year’s NCAA champion Destin Lasco.
Ella Welch – Louisville – Women’s 100 fly
Louisville has had some fantastic sprint fly/freestylers recently in Christina Regenauer and Gabi Albiero, and Welch’s big drop in fly saw her expand her range and join that group. She dropped down towards ‘A’ final territory, taking nearly a second off her 51.67 PB to go 50.74 in the final. After sneaking into the final with an initial PB of 51.5, she then had one of only four back-half splits under 27 seconds to go from eighth to fifth. With Louisville accustomed to dropping from ACCs to NCAAs, a little more early speed could take that down towards the 50-second barrier.
