North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Women Put Together Electric Third Day of NCAA Competition
3/17/2023 11:28:00 PM | Swimming
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — The Wolfpack women had an electric third day of competition at the 2023 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, highlighted by four All-American and five Honorable Mention All-American honors.
Heading into the last day of competition, NC State sits in fifth place, just 1.5 points behind fourth place Louisville. The Pack overcame a loss of points from Thursday's relay disqualification to put the team back into contention for a top-four team finish.
400-yard individual medley:
Sophomore Grace Sheble swam the third-fastest time of the morning (4:04.65) to enter the evening's Championship Final as the third seed. Sheble's swim in finals started a trend of success for the Pack throughout the session, as she finished fifth, going 4:04.83. In the same event last year, the All-American finished 22nd. Competing in prelims, Yara Hierath swam just off of her personal best time to finish in 30th place (4:12.84).
100-yard butterfly:
Just one one-hundredth of a second separated Kylee Alons and Abby Arens during prelims, where they finished in eighth (50.85) and ninth (50.86), respectively. Returning to the Championship Final, Alons put her hands on the wall in 50.44 seconds, moving her to seventh place overall. Arens secured a win in the Consolation Final with a personal best time of 50.60 seconds.
200-yard freestyle:
Abbey Webb, posting a time of 1:44.02 in the morning, competed in the night's Consolation Final as the 12th seed. Webb came back to win the heat from lane 2 (1:43.48), bettering her own Program Record in the process. Annabel Crush finished 35th overall from her prelims performance (1:46.18).
100-yard breaststroke:
Heather MacCausland, a senior swimming in the first NCAA Final of her career, broke the 58 second barrier for the first time to bring home the fifth place trophy. Her time of 57.74 seconds moves her to second all-time in NC State program history and is a remarkable jump from her 19th place finish (59.46) in the event at last year's meet.Â
Also competing in the 200-yard breaststroke to be contested on the remaining day of competition, Andrea Podmanikova joined MacCausland in the evening's event by claiming 15th overall from the Consolation Final (59.39). Freshman Aubree Brouwer finished in 42nd place (1:00.55) in the first National Championship meet of her career.
100-yard backstroke:
Senior and 22x All-American Katharine Berkoff held her seed from the morning (50.14) to finish the night as the National Runner-Up with a time of 49.13 seconds. Fifth-year senior Emma Muzzy put together an electric day of competition, setting a personal best time in prelims and adding just one one-hundredth in finals to finish 10th overall. Entering the meet with a seed time of 52.03 for 27th, Muzzy finished with a time of 51.27. Freshman Kennedy Noble finished the event as the second-fastest freshman in the field, going 51.32 for 11th place overall, setting best times in both prelims and finals.
400-yard medley relay:
In the last event of the evening, NC State's medley relay quartet of Katharine Berkoff, Heather MacCausland, Kylee Alons, and Abby Arens raced to a second place finish, out-touching third place Texas by over half of a second. Berkoff's third 100 backstroke of the day clocked in a 50.10, with MacCausland splitting 57.39 for the fourth-fastest breaststroke leg in the field. Alons' butterfly leg came in at 49.96 seconds, while Arens (47.21) anchored the squad to their second place finish (3:24.66) for a No. 3 all-time performance in program history.
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The Wolfpack women will wrap up their season with a final day of NCAA Championship action on Saturday with the 1650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Prelims are set to begin at 10 a.m., with finals starting at 6 p.m. Both sessions will be live on ESPN+.
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