2020 JANIS HAPE DOWD INVITATIONAL
- Thursday, December 3-Saturday, December 5
- Teams: University of North Carolina, NC State, Virginia Tech, Duke, Wolfpack Elite
- Koury Natatorium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Format: Short Course Yards (SCY)
- Prelims/Finals
- Prelims @9AM Central, Finals @5PM Central
- 2021 NCAA Qualifying Times
- Results on Meet Mobile: “UNC ‘Janis Hape Dowd’ Invitational”
- Results Link
Coming off a lifetime-best 100 back leading off last night’s medley relay, NC State sophomore Katharine Berkoff went 50.9 this morning to qualify first.
Berkoff was 50.47 leading off NC State’s medley relay last night. That’s three tenths under her lifetime-best of 50.72. Now, Berkoff qualified first overall in the 100 back this morning in 50.99. She’s now gone under 51 five times in her career, with two of those swims coming in the past day and a half. She’ll have a chance to expand that 50-point portfolio in tonight’s final.
Teammate Kylee Alons is second in 51.86 – that’s a new lifetime-best for Alons, breaking her previous best of 52.17. Alons is a versatile fly/free/back sprinter for NC State. She did swim the 100 back at ACCs last year, but had switched over to the 100 fly with her NCAA entries.
Highly-ranked freshman Luke Miller had a big 200 free swim this morning, going 1:33.83 for the top spot. That’s just his fourth swim ever under 1:35 and four tenths off his lifetime-best. It should sit 10th in the NCAA ranks for this season, though with a few other invites going on this weekend, those ranks should shuffle pretty significantly by Monday.
NC State alum Coleman Stewart was in attendance, competing as a pro. Fresh off an International Swimming League team title with the Cali Condors, Stewart went 44.30 here, not far off his lifetime-best 43.98 from NCAAs in 2019.
Other event leaders on day 3:
- NC State’s Kate Moore went 4:05.61 to lead the 400 IM by more than seven seconds. That time should put her into the top 5 in the NCAA this season, pending other invite results this week.
- Eric Knowles is the men’s leader at 3:44.88, with freshman Mikey Moore about two and a half seconds back. Moore hit a lifetime-best by a second and a half this morning.
- UNC’s Valdas Abaliksta is the top 100 breaststroke qualifier by more than a second. He was 52.45 in an event where UNC sits 1-2 heading into tonight.
- Julia Poole went 1:47.44 to lead the 200 free for NC State, just three tenths ahead of Duke’s Quinn Scannell (1:47.72).
- SMU transfer Andrea Podmanikova was 59.65 to lead the 100 breast for NC State. The Wolfpack is competing without Swedish star Sophie Hansson, and it’s unclear whether she’s expected back for the second semester as many of the Wolfpack international students are.
Very cool that Coleman Stewart is racing here — and presumably he’s in good form after just finishing ISL. This could be a “makeup” attempt at the Am Record in 100 back that he missed last March in his final NCAAs. Going 44.3 in the meaningless prelims should indicate it’s all systems go!