NC State
NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships
NC State in Fourth After Third Day of NCAA Championships
3/24/2017 8:45:00 PM | Swimming
Held, Dahl, Vazaios earn first team All-America Honors
Results
INDIANAPOLIS—The NC State men's swimming and diving team earned four top-eight finishes at the NCAA Championships Friday inside the IU Natatorium. The team's showing was led by podium finishes from Ryan Held, Soren Dahl and Andreas Vazaios, who tabbed first team All-America honors. The 200 medley relay also finished top-eight, marking the highest finish under head coach Braden Holloway.
Through 14 events, the Wolfpack has collected 18 first team All-America honors and eight honorable mention All-America honors, as well set three conference records and six school records.Â
In the team race, NC State remains in fourth place, tallying 196 points after three days. Texas stands as the leader with 391.5 points, California is in second with 253 points and Florida will enter the final day of competition in third place with 224.5 points.
Highlights:
Holloway's Statement:
"We had a good effort tonight from our guys. There's a great battle going on in the team race to get in the top three," said head coach Holloway. "Hats off to Anton Ipsen for getting us started tonight by breaking the school record—that was a tough record to break. This is his third event, so we're even more excited for his mile tomorrow.
"Ryan Held and Soren Dahl are swimming an awful lot of events this weekend with all their individual events and relays and they're being fierce competitors. They keep fighting and proving to be so worthy to our program by scoring big points for us. In the 200 freestyle, Soren has been a huge part of our program's rise in that event, and going out in his last event making top eight was a great way to end his individual career.
"We're proud of Andreas and Coleman for scoring valuable points in the 100 backstroke for us. Coleman is just a freshman and he's getting his first taste of night swimming, and Andreas was able to go a little quicker in the 100 back to break his school record. That's definitely a great set-up for his last day.
"We've always had issues in the 200 medley relay making top eight at this meet—it always seems to get away from us. But we got the job done this morning and made it back, and we nearly broke the conference record, so it was a great swim at night in one of the fastest 200 medley relay-fields ever. I'm proud of them—of course they always want more, but they're doing a good job and scoring some points.
"Tomorrow is a big morning for us if we want to be top three. We're going to have to get the job done and set us up to score some points and set up Anton and Adam in the mile. So we'll see what they got, we just need to be ready."
Wolfpack Relays
The 200 medley relay squad of Coleman Stewart, Derek Hren, Justin Ress and Ryan Held earned the Wolfpack its highest finish in the Holloway Era, taking a sixth place. The team's time of 1:23.18 stands as the second-fastest relay in program.Â
ButterflyÂ
Held grabbed another individual podium finish as he took fourth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 44.92. The results tabbed him All-America honors, the 16th overall of his career.
Backstroke
Andreas Vazaios led NC State's showing in the 100 backstroke with a time of 45.49, finishing eighth overall to earn the second All-America honors of his career. Additionally, his preliminary time of 45.26 broke the school record. Freshman Stewart tabbed his first honorable mention All-America honors with a 14th place finish in the event, touching the wall in 45.80.
Hennessey Stuart finished 18th overall in a time of 46.24 and Andreas Schiellerup grabbed a 25th-place finish, stopping the clock in 46.53.Â
Freestyle
In the 200 freestyle, Soren Dahl posted a time of 1:32.98 to garner seventh in the overall standings, earning his the first top-eight finish of his career. His time from the prelim session, 1:32.55, stands as the third-fastest time in program history. Ress took 21st place in the event with a time of 1:34.15.Â
Individual Medley
Anton Ipsen broke the school record in the 400 individual medley with a time of 3:41.57 to place 11th. His swim also grabbed him honorable mention All-America honors and marked the senior's highest finish of his career in the event at a NCAA Championship meet.
Breaststroke
Hren was the Wolfpack's only entry in the 100 breaststroke, where the senior finished 23rd in the overall standings with a time of 52.71.
Up Next
The Wolfpack will return to the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis for the final day of the NCAA Championships. Prelims will start at 10 a.m., early heats of the 1,650 free will begin at 3:45 p.m. and finals will commence at 6 p.m. The day's events include the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1,650 free and 400 free relay. Additionally, James Brady will represent the team in platform diving which will begin at noon. Fans can follow along through live results and a live stream of all the events.Â
Players Mentioned
