North Carolina State University Athletics
Holloway Ready For NCAA Championships
3/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Swimming
RALEIGH, NC (March 19, 2001) -- Wolfpack senior All-American Braden Holloway will be leaving tommorow to participate in the NCAA Championships in College Station, TX on Thursday. Holloway will be the lone Wolfpack representative, however, there have been other bright spots on the team as well this season.
Freshman Dan Kesler and Steve Matthews also finished strong for NC State, finishing among the national leaders in the 1,650 meters. Kesler took 31st overall by virtue of his time of 15:22.01 in the ACC Championships. Matthews also finished 34th overall with a mark of 15:24.56 in the meet.
Junior Tim Haley also had a sucessful 2001 campaign, taking 36th overall in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:46.94. That mark, swam during a time trial after ACC competition, broke the school record of 1:47.00 set by Steve Gregg on March 27, 1976.
Holloway will compete in three events on Thursday. He will compete in the 100 backstroke, an event for which he currently holds the school record of 47.77 and is the reigning ACC Champion. He will also compete in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, two events that he qualified for under the NCAA “B” provision during the ACC Championships. Holloway also holds school records in the 200 backstroke (1:46.26) and 200 IM (1:48.47), while being a member of both the 200 (1:27.73) and 400 medley relay (3:17.26) squads that set school records in the past two seasons.
Holloway is looking to end his career with a flourish in Texas. “The is my last hurrah in college,” he said. “The field in the 100 back will be much faster than last year or any other year. A lot of that can be attributed to this being the year after an Olympics where you are competing against a lot of tough international swimmers who have stayed here after the Games.”
Among his goals for the meet are challenging for the ACC record in the event, currently held by Stephen Parry of Florida State with a mark of 47.72 set on March 25, 1999 at the NCAA Championships. The time is just .05 seconds faster that Holloway’s mark.
“I would certainly like to get that ACC record, but I think that I have to just go into this meet with the mindset of just whatever happens, happens.”
Looking back on the 2000-01 campaign, Holloway has only one regret, that he did not have more time to train under the tutilege of first-year head coach Brooks Teal.
“This was my last year and I wish I had two or three more years here with Coach Teal,” said Holloway. “He has just been fantastic. Coach Teal and his staff are really working to turn the program around. They have been recruiting extremely hard and I am really excited about the prospects for this team.”
