The NC State swimming & diving team began the dual portion of its schedule Saturday afternoon at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center against Virginia Tech. The women’s squad topped the Hokies by a final score of 171-129, while the men’s squad fell, 185-113. The women’s team improves to 1-0 on the season, while the men’s squad falls to 0-1.
“After an adventurous ride to Blacksburg, we had an up and down battle today with the Hokies,” said head coach Braden Holloway. “The ladies’ victory was a total team effort and it was great for them. For the guys, it was a rough day. Virginia Tech was ready for us and did a good job. The guys are going to have to be better in order to have success at this level.”
Overall, Wolfpack swimmers claimed 11 individual titles to go along with four relay titles throughout the squad’s first conference meet of the season.
The meet opened with the 200-yard medley relay and State captured the top two spots in the women’s race, with Alexia Zevnik, Lauren Poli, Zina Grogg and Lotta Nevalainen touching the wall first with a time of 1:41.97. On the men’s side, the team of Andreas Schiellerup, Ian Bishop, David Williams and Jonathan Boffa posted a first-place finish at 1:29.87.
Zevnik, a freshman from Lasalle, Canada, captured the top time in the women’s 100 breaststroke in 55.07. Her time in the event is below the required time standard for an NCAA ‘B’ cut and ranks among the top-10 times in program history for the event. In the 200 backstroke, the freshman claimed her second individual title of the meet with a time of 2:00.45.
“Alexia [Zevnik] had an outstanding day getting a couple of victories for the team,” Holloway stated.
State was able to capture first, second and third place finishes in the women’s 200 butterfly and the 50 freestyle races. Freshman Lydia Jones turned in a first-place performance in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:03.85, while Anne Leuthold and Katelyn Linker finished second (2:04.65) and third (2:06.95), respectively.
In the next race of the meet, Riki Bonnema claimed the top time in the 50 freestyle, finishing with a time 23:58, while Nevalainen and Ashlyn Koletic finished second (23.61) and third (23.78), respectively.
“Winning the women’s 200 fly and 50 free back-to-back shifted the momentum in the meet,” Holloway said. “To go 1-2-3 in both of those races really put us in a good position to keep the momentum for the rest of the meet.”
Bishop finished as the top performer for the Pack on the men’s side, as he recorded two individual victories in addition to being a member of the 200-medley relay team. Bishop’s first individual victory came in the 100 breaststroke, as he recorded a time of 55.85. The senior touched the wall in 2:04.15 in the 200 breaststroke to claim top honors in that event as well.
The Pack claimed its second relay victory on the men’s side in the final event of the afternoon, as Williams, Boffa, Simonas Bilis and Scott Johnson claimed the top time in the 400 freestyle relay.
“On the men’s side, we were lacking a little firepower,” Holloway said. “We have to have a little more desire and willingness to work through whether we are tired or not.”
In the diving competition, freshman Grant Saale scored a 260.85 on the men’s one-meter springboard in his ACC debut, while sophomore Madeline Keeley totaled a score of 247.13 on the women’s three-meter springboard.
Up next, the Pack will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to compete against Florida State and Georgia Tech on Friday, Oct. 25 at 3 p.m
This release was provided to swimswam courtesy of NC State swimming & diving team.
The Hokie men are on fire! On the womens side they are getting stronger with a great group of freshman adding to their depth. VT did amazing considering that the rumors that they did not taper for this meet, while others did. My advice, don’t turn a blind eye to the H2okie swim team.
Times from this past weekend were not impressive. I don’t know if I was more shock to see Hokie beat up on NC State with a big margin, or with how slow NC State men swam
Hokie men are looking strong this year! Victories over UNC and NC State. Looking forward to seeing what they can do vs Ohio State and Tennessee later on in their schedule