Berkoff Wins National Championship Title, Sets American Record in 100 Backstroke
3/18/2022 10:39:00 PM | Swimming
ATLANTA – Junior Katharine Berkoff highlighted the individual results on day three of the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships by winning the 100-yard backstroke National Championship title for the second year in a row. NC State also brings home a second place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, third place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, and fifth place finish in the 100-yard butterfly.
The second individual National Championship title of Berkoff's career came in the 100-yard backstroke, where her remarkable 48.74 marks as the fastest time in history. The American Record-breaking swim was the first time any woman has ever broken the 49 second barrier in the event and is the first American record in the history of NC State women's swimming. Berkoff now owns the NCAA, ACC, American, US Open, pool, and program records in the event.
The Wolfpack relay squad of Berkoff, Sophie Hansson, Kylee Alons, and Abby Arens rewrote the NC State record books with their second place finishing time of 3:23.29 in the last event of the evening. Berkoff led off with a 49.25 backstroke leg shortly after winning the National title in the individual event just minutes before. Sophie Hansson's 56.67 breaststroke leg put the team in the lead with the fastest split in the field heading into Kylee Alons' butterfly contribution (50.28). Abby Arens finished off the night by throwing down a 47.09 100-yard freestyle to secure second place for NC State. The race lowered the previous program record (3:24.59) by more than a second.
Senior Sophie Hansson earned her fourth All American status in a row in the 100-yard breaststroke, where her third place finish (57.01) marks the second-fastest time of her career. In the 100-yard butterfly, Kylee Alons earned All American status by securing fifth place (50.64), a time that was just off of her own school record (50.35).
In the Consolation Final of the 100-yard breaststroke, Andrea Podmanikova secured 11th place with her 58.93 performance, while Julia Poole's prelims swim (59.83) was the first sub-minute swim of her career. Senior Emma Muzzy scored points from the Consolation Final of the 100-yard backstroke with her 13th place time of 51.72, a time that's .10 faster than her previous personal best.Â
The Wolfpack women will wrap up their season with a final day of NCAA Championships action on Saturday with the 1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, and the 400 freestyle relay. Prelims will begin at 10 a.m., the early heats of the 1,650-yard freestyle will start at 3:45 p.m. and finals are set to commence at 6 p.m. All sessions will be live on ESPN3.
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