North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Swimming Heads to NCAA Championship
3/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming
March 22, 2006
Four members of the NC State men's swimming team will be traveling to Atlanta, Ga. this weekend to compete in the NCAA Championships. The Pack is sending three seniors in the likes of Cullen Jones, Kevin Velleca, and Dan Velez along with junior Steve Cowling to the Championships.
The meet will kick off on Thursday with Jones swimming in the 50-meter freestyle, arguably his best event. Jones marched through this season undefeated in the 50-yard freestyle and broke the ACC and school records for the event swimming a time of 19.07 seconds at the ACC Championships, the top mark in the nation this season. The time was a mere two hundredths of a second off of the US record of 19.05.
The rest of the team will get their first shot at an NCAA Championship this season on Friday when all four members will compete in the 200 medley relay. Velleca will be swimming the backstroke leg, Velez the breaststroke, Cowling the butterfly, and Jones the anchor freestyle leg. The team put up an ACC record time of 1:26.88 at the ACC Championships just a few weeks ago.
Also on Friday, Velez will swim in the 100 breaststroke, an event that he was just two hundredths of a second off of the school record in this season. Velleca will take aim at the 100 backstroke event in which he holds the NC State facility record. Velleca also won this season's ACC Championship in the event and finished second at the conference meet in 2005.
Saturday, Jones will shoot for the top spot in the 100 freestyle, an event in which he holds two ACC Championships. Jones won the ACC 100 freestyle championship this season to give him seven ACC Championships in his career. His teammate Velez will be swimming in the 200 breaststroke event on Saturday as well. Velez holds the NC State record in the event with his time at the 2006 ACC Championships of 1:59.72.
Be sure to check www.gopack.com later this week for results from the NCAA Championships and a daily journal of the team's performance and activities leading up to their respective events.
